The LDS Church and Utah Politics by Rod Decker 9 1997 Washington, D.C

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The LDS Church and Utah Politics by Rod Decker 9 1997 Washington, D.C. MAIL ORDERS TO: SUNSTONE 343 North Third West Sunstone Salt Lake City, UT 84103-1215 8011355-5926 [email protected] Tapes are $8.00 each + 10% postage Symposium Include check or credit card number Audio cassette order form (VISA, MC, AMEX, DISC)

-1. Inside the Mormon Hierarchy: Everything the -14. Confessions of a Mormon Psychic Spy: What Strengthening the Members Committee Didn't My Seven Years as a Government Remote Want You to See Viewer Taught Me about the Gospel -D. Michael Quinn -Paul H. Smith

-2. "The Sealed Book" Symbol in Earliest -15. Directive Force: Normative Schemas in Mormonism-Isaiah 29 and the Three Mormon Popular Music Witnesses -Suzanne Cloud Tapper -Anthony Hutchinson -17. Do Clones Have Souls? Mormons and -3. Nauvoo in the 1840s: Conflict between the Bioethics Mormons and the Non-Mormons -Nancy Stowe Kader -Roger D. Launius -18. Pillars of My Faith -4. Beyond a Shadow of Certitude: Field Notes -Todd Eskelson from a Stupor of Thought -Kathleen Flake -Neal C. Chandler -19. Environmentalism and the Restored Gospel: -5. Encountering God in My Profession Ecological Arguments from Latter-Day -Gordon Banks Scriptures -Rebecca Chandler -Mark Bigelow -Charlee Hodson --Russell Fox

-6. God Has a Neck; Why Don't Church Leaders? -20. The Sacred and the Mundane: Mormon -Lynn Matthews Anderson Feminism on the Internet (A Reader's Theater) -Rands/Ensign/Banks/Hodson -7. What Do I Believe? Ideas that Animate My Religious Life -21. We See What We Believe: The -Annette Lantos Heterosexualization of Gay Men and Lesbians in the LDS Church -9. Spiritual Living Lessons by the Ultimate Relief -Jeffery R. Jenson Society President-Sister Fonda Alamode -Laurie Mecham Johnson -22. The True Order of Basketball -Neal C. Chandler -10. The Mark of the Curse: Lingering Racism in Mormon Doctrine -23. The Ethical Dilemmas Presented by the 1977 -Keith E. Norman International Women's Year Conference: A Twenty-year Retrospective -11. Preparing Girls and Young Women for Full -Martha Sonntag Bradley Participation in the Gospel -Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger MORMON EXPERIENCE, SCHOLARSHIP, ISSUES, & ART October 1997 Volume 20:3 Issue 107

FEATURES Ian G. Barber ...... BEYOND THE LITERALIST CONSTRAINT: PER- SONAL REFLECTIONS ON MORMON SCRIP- TURE AND RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATION Rod Decker...... THE LDS CHURCH AND UTAH POLITICS Brian Evenson...... PAST AND PRESENT: MARNI ASPLUND- CAMPBELLS POETRY J. Scott Bronson ...... ALTARS: A ONE-ACT PLAY POETRY Russell Salamon...... MUDDY BROWN SUNSTONE (ISSN 0363-1370) is published by The Sunstone Robert Cooperman...... SUBWAY MANIA Foundation, a non-profit corporation with no oficial Georganne O'Connor ...... CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND, VIRGINIA connection to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Anicles represent the op~nionsof the wnters only. Paul Swenson ...... STRANGE GODS SUNSTONE is indexed in Rellgon index One: Pend~cals,the Anita Tanner...... LEAVING ALCATRAZ lNtx lo BWk Revim5 in Religion. Religion Index~s-RIOIRITIIBBR Askold Skalsky...... PHOTOGRAPH: ELLIS ISLAND, 1949 1975 on CD-ROM, and the ATIA Refigon Datahe on CD-ROM. published by the American Theological L~braryAssociation, 820 David Feela...... THE EVOLUTION OF GOD Church Street. Evanston. 1L 60201-5613 (e-mail: atla@atla com, www: httpllatla.libra~vanderbilt.eduhtl~ome.html~ COLUMNS

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FROM THE EDITOR sorrow, anxiety, weariness, loneliness, opti- misim, doubt, love, rejection. Each mood brought a new interpretation, a new insight-to the poem, life, Frost, and, of TOUCHED BY THE MASTERS' HANDS course, myself. His better poems resonate with more moods and occasions; the lesser poems are not so accessible, and I found myself not quoting them as often. Frost's poems, especially the better ones, are particularly accessible because they are metaphors-speaking of one thing in terms By Elbert Eugene Peck of another. When you take something like a star, it can mean many different things to many different people, and even different DECADE BEFORE performing The Poetty of Robert Frost. His early poems things to the same person, depending on missionary discussions in one's particularly resonated with the idealistic mis- their needs and circumstances. For Frost, all A own words became the program, I sion experience, such as feeling an affinity for things are metaphor-a philosophy that has rebelled and did it to avoid that intolerable, the earlier labors of those "whose thought[s] influenced me greatly At first, a hearty ro- rote task. But the first semester back from the I had not hoped to reacW4 and Frost's "testi- mantic, I sought metaphors everywhere for field, on my own, 1 memorized "The Touch mony" that everything we experience on everything and gave several silly church of the Master's and."' I did so because as a earth we agreed to in a pre-mortal life.* talks, like the one wherein I compared missionary I had heard Santa Rosa California So, at Bw, after memorizing the tale of church life to a symphony (not a bad com- Stake President Sid Peterson movingly recite the old violin and several other doggerel dit- parison) but I drew the analogy to ridiculous it, and I wanted to use it to similar effect in ties, I naturally next photocopied and pasted ends and preached obvious morals. I was like my sermons. I still can recite it, but none of on "to memorize" notecards Frost's "Mending Myra Welch whose violin ballad concludes: my friends let me get past "'Twas battered Wall." After that small step lightly taken, "And many a man with his life out of tune is and scarred, and the auctioneer. . ." poem led on to poem, and (sigh) that made battered . . . is auctioned cheap. . . ." In con- Over the next four years, walking from all the difference. trast, Frost usually tells a story; the hearer King Henry Apartments through Kiwanis My memorization method was long and does the application. Park to the Bw campus, I memorized several uncoerced; "I made slow Riches, but my Fortunately, in time I abandoned such de- hundred poems. I began the endeavor be- Gain Was steady as the Sun.'" I would read a liberate and public emulations, but the sub- cause in his scripture class philologist Arthur poem over and over; eventually, when it had tler effects are perhaps inalterable. Seeing Henry King convincingly preached the rooted, I tried it sans the prompt card, to language and ideas as metaphor-being not virtues of memorizing texts and in his Pearl which I invariably had to refer. When I got the thing, but ways to talk about and understand of Great Price class omni-ologist Hugh tired with one poem. I went on to another, the thing-helped me constructively tran- Nibley impressively modeled them with and then, say on the return trip, I would re- scend the literalism of many of our theolog- lengthy recitations of Shakespeare and other visit the first poem. Gradually, my pool of ical knots without rejecting their however- classic authors (most of them in English). memorized poems rose. Some days I just re- illusive underlying spiritual points. And, of Memorizing for me was difficult; the vision hearsed those I'd mastered. At odd, un- course, years of pondering metaphorical lan- of effectively utilizing the gems as did Nibley planned moments, such as while hiking or guage helped me understand many of the and Peterson kept me at it. waiting for a bus, I'd recite one to myself. post-modem methods of analysis. Near the end of my mission, however, I This was truly a labor of love; it had to be be- Many of Frost's poems and metaphors had memorized the concluding stanza of cause, even then, when English Professor came to define and explain personal crises. Robert Frost's "Reluctance," so 1 could im- Jean Anne Waterstradt had her students More than once, with one step backward pressively recite it in my farewell speeches on memorize a Shakespeare sonnet, it was for taken, I have saved myself from "the rush of my last circuit of zone conferences: "Ah, me a grueling, unenjoyable task done the day everything to wasten8as "a world tom loose when to the heart of man I Was it very less before the deadline. But on my own. I proved went by me."9 And I have consciously than a treason I To go with the drift of things, Heber Grant's oft-quoted Emerson truism: quoted a poemk phrase to myself (as expla- I To yield with a grace to reason, / And bow "That which we persist in doing becomes nation? justification?) when I have done so. and accept the end I Of a love or a season?"* easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the Once, while lamenting my estrangement I had discovered Frost's poetry due to the fre- thing itself has changed. but our ability to do from the nurturing Mormon community of quent recitations in church of the last stanza has increased."' my innocence, 1 wept and instructed myself of "The Road Not Taken," perhaps popular- Professor King was right: to truly know a to return,.quoting aloud, "Here are your wa- ized in Mormondom by ApostldSpoken text, you must memorize it. Then you live ters and your watering place, Drink and be Word essayist Richard L. ~vans.~Inspired to with it, and it lives with you-like a mis- whole again beyond conf~sion."'~And when choose the good, yet less traveled road (a sionary companion, a roommate, or a I have reflected on my own indifference or moral the poem, in fact, does not support), 1 spouse. I have been one acquainted with inaction toward another needy soul, I've sad, said to myself, "I've got to get this guy's po- Frost's poems by night and day; I have sometimes reprovingly, sometimes only with etry" While my junior companions memo- walked out with them in rain, in sunrise and ironic awareness, "I have it in me so much rized the discussions, I read, highlighted, sunset, in blizzard and summer heat. They nearer home To scare myself with my own underlined, and scribbled marginal notes in have been my companions in joy, depression, desert places."' '

PAGE 2 SEPTEMBER 1997 Sometimes I drew upon Frost phrases to in my memory, especially the verses on un- Edgar Guest. In one Star Trek: The Next articulate a common experience, but other righteous dominion from Doctrine and Generation episode, never-married Cap-tain times Frost phrases told me how to interpret Covenants 121. Those phrases and com- Picard lived an entire alternate married life the experience, and still other times, upon mandments have become part of my canon on Kataan (in his mind), which now is part of reflection, I interpreted my world through within the canon. him and how he responds to the wbrld.13 Frost's world view without even being aware The same is true for 1 Corinthians 13 and Literature does the same thing, and all in all, of his influence. I not only understand Frost's the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7), both I am happy living with the mind of Frost. view on the world, but to a surprising de- of which I memorized at BW.And from that A harder question: should I have memo- gree, it has become mine. As 1 matured, not constant rereading and ready referencing rized more scn~turesand less Frost? I never only did Frost's so-called darker poems ap- them, the principles in them define for me considered then just how much those recita- peal to me, but also I saw the darker sides in the core of Christianity When 1 get angry at tions shaped my soul. If I had memorized what I, and many of his fans, thought as op- others. I usually upbraid myself by quoting more scriptures, would I have more of the timistic treatises. His skepticism not only res- Jesus' command to love our enemies; when I mind of God than of Frost? Will my lament onated with mine, it became mine. His treat people disrespectfully or brusquely, I echo Shakespeare's dromwell: "Had I but hatdove quarrel with the world gave labels feel guilty and remember that the first char- memoriz'd my God with even half the zeal I for my own and, to a degree, cultivated it: acteristic of charity is to be kind. Some of the memoriz'd my poet, He would not in mine things like his obsession with maintaining passages instruct my behavior, others call or age have left me naked to mine enemies." boundaries and with fleeing the world (but haunt me, while others I still disagree with or not permanently). It is said that we first wonder about. But I can't forget any of them. NOTES shape our buildings and then they shape us. Because of this scriptural familiarity, I 1 Myra Brooks \Vclch. "The Touch of the Master$ Hand." Similarly, we select our categories of interpre- don't necessarily feel better than I would In Br~l-Lo\~edPoems of thc LDS Pco Ic comp Jack M Lyon, er a1 tation, and then they interpret our experi- without them, just guiltier; nevertheless, my (Salt Lake City. Deseret Book. 199l). 13243 2 Roben Frost. "Reluctance." in The Poer?y tf Robert Flost ences. That is true of my eversion with Frost, life is in conversation with those three texts ed Edward Connery Lathem (New York: Holt. Rinehan and but only partly true. more than with other scripture, and as a re- W'tnston. 969). 30 3 Rlchard L. Evans. Thc Richard L Evans Quote Bwk (Salt While my approach to life is undeniably sult, for me, spirituality is primarily interper- Lake City Publ~shenPress. 1973) colored by Frost, it is not dictated by him. sonal-the first commandment lived 4 Frost. "The Tuft of Flowen." 23 Today, and for some time, our relationship through the second-and I see institutional 5 Frost. "The Trial by Extaence." 19-21 6 Emily Dicklnson. poem 843. The Complca Porrns o/Em~lv has been more of an on-going conversation religon subject to these texts. Dirb~nmned Thomas H Johnson (Boston Little Brown and with a peer or a life-long friend than instruc- A tree grows the way it is bent, and these Company, 1960). 7. Heber J Granr quoted Emerson in many speeches: one tion from a master. I am still influenced by masters-Frost, Jefferson, Capra, Smith. reference is tn Gerrit De Jong Jr k The Tesfimonv o[ HcberJ. Grant the Frost encoded in my circuitry, but being Paul, and Jesus-have done much of my (Salt Lake City. Deseret Book. 1965). 41 8 Frost. "The Master Speed." 300 dysfunctionally self-reflective, I now disagree bending. Should I have chosen better poets 9 Frost. "One Stcp Backward T~ken."37677 with him as much as I agree; it is a discus- and philosophers? Could 1 have, given who I 10 Frost. "Directive." 377-379 11 Frost. "Desen Places." 296. sion, which is more healthy. I have similar, was at the time? Sometimes I wish I'd memo- 12 Wayne C Booth, Thr Company Wc Kcel?' An Eth~csof on-going, internal, lived conversations with a rized more Shakespeare or Milton (friends Fiction (Berkeley: Unmerstty of California Press. 1988) 13 Slar 3ck: The Next Gcncrafion. "The Light Inside" episode few other individuals whose lives and get tired of a mostly Frost program), but then 14 See Wlll~amShakespeare. Henry VIII. Ill n 454-57. in The thoughts I have chosen to have such inti- I'm grateful I ended up with Frost instead of Riverstdc Shakcspeore (Boston: Houghton hlimin Company. 1974) macy with: Thomas Jefferson, Frank Capra (whose films [and life] also initially appear idealistic, but actually have surprising dark sides), and Brother Richard P Evans, a bish- opric counselor whose religious approach I still emulate and argue with. They are, among others, "the company I keep," to appropriate Wayne Booth's phrase from his in- credible book on the effect of the literature we read and particularly his life-long conversation with Mark Twain's Huckleberry inn.'^ Over the years, I have memorized numerous poems by poets, such as Thomas Hardy and Gerard Manley Hopkins, but not so much that our souls intermingle. 1 have also had an on-going dialogue with several scripture passages. As a teenager, along with most other Aaronic Priesthood youth of the 1960s and early '70s. I spent the days prior to each New Year's memonzing, at my father's insistence, those four "quarterly" scriptures required each year for the annual step toward the Duty to God award. Surprisingly, some of those scriptures stuck '7 want to Be saved, but at the same time I want to be spent. °

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 3 SUNSTONE SUNSIDNE Fmndrd m 19i4 matically suspected of heresy or greater SCOTT KENNEY 1975-1978 FAIR COMPENSATION ALLEN D. ROBERTS 1978-1980 crimes, and God's adherence to the Republi- PEGGY FLETCHER 1978-1986 ARY BERGERA'S "Wilkinson the Man" can party had become an article of faith. DANIEL RECTOR 1986-1991 Editor and Publisher G (SUNSTONE,July 1997) makes me want Although Wilkinson supported the library ELBERT EUGENE PECK to relate my first experience with Wilkinson. with money, one always suspected that the Managing Editor Ofice Managrr ERICJONES CAROL B QUlST In 1954, when we were law students at administration considered us as the enemy Associnte Ed~lon Pmduction Manager the University of Utah, Tom Greene and I Therefore, I'm more than irritated that GREG CAMPBELL MARK J. MALCOLM BRYAN R7ATERhAN won a moot court competition dealing with Gary Bergera's paean to Wilkinson should in- Prtion Editors the issue whether schools that the Church clude the repeated remarks by William MARNI ASPLUND CAMPBELL. Comucop~a LARA CANDLAND ASPLUND. l~ct~on had, yean earlier, transferred to the state, Fdwards about BYU's being a high-class ju- DENNIS CLARK, poetv remews would revert to Church ownership if the nior college. Edwards was a brilliant man in BRIAN KAGEL, news STEVE MAYFIELD. l~branan state closed the schools. The issue concerned finance, but in reality he, like most of the DIXIE PARTRIDGE, poetry BYU WILL QUIST, new books president Ernest L. Wilkinson in his role men Bergera quotes, held his position at BYU PHYLLIS BAKER. hct~oncontest as Church commissioner of education. because he was ultimately a sycophant. Ed~tonalAssistants SARA CHRISTENSEN. LOWELL N. HAU'KES. BEVERLY HOPPE Tom and I received a request to come to Bergera should have written a more objec- JANE MOMBERGER. WENDY MURDOCK Provo to discuss the issues with President tive article quoting some of the individuals ERIC SINGLETON. LYN WORTHEN Advisory Editorial Bmrd Wilkinson. We were flattered. Once in his of- who ultimately left BYU because of The Man. PAT BAGLEY BRJAN BEAN. T. E BEHREND fice, we presented our views of the legal situ- WILLIAM BRACE JAYS. BYBEE. CONNIE DISNEY MICHAEL HARWARD. LYNNE KANAVEL WHITESIDES ation. Then he questioned and cross- River Forest, IL Contributing Column~sis examined us vigorously and sharply. My un- ORSON SCOTT CARD. COURTNN CAMPBELL DORICE WlLLlAMS ELLIOTT. MICHAEL HICKS spoken reaction was, "What nen7ehe has, to TONY HUTCHINSON. DALID KNOWLTON CRITICAL CULTURE MARYBETH RAYNES. PETER SORENSEN ask us to come all the way down here to do STEPHEN THOMPSON. DAVID P WRIGHT him a favor and then treat us like that!" APOLOGIZE that my review of Benson Corresponden& JOANNA BROOKS. NEAL & REBECCA CHANDLER As we left, he picked up from his secre- I Parkinson's novel The MTC: Set Apart BRIAN EVENSON. KARL SANDBERG tary's desk checks already made out to us, (SUNSTONE,Apr. 1997) was perceived as be- HOLLY WELKER Cartoon~rts each in the amount of twenty-five dollars, a ing "harsh" ("An Empty 'C"' by Thomas F: PAT BAGLEY. CALVIN GRONDAHL CHRIS CHECKETTS. KENT CHRISTENSEN significant sum for the time. I then realized Rogers, SUNSTONE,July 1997). 1 honestly SAM DAY. MARVlN FRIEDMAN. STEVE KROPP that even though we were students, he had didn't (and still don't) think my criticism to CARL MCBRAYER. ROBERT MURRAY BRUCE READE, BRAD VELEY. RYAN S. WAYMENT paid us the compliment of treating us as pro- be such. Nor was (or is) my criticism of the Volantrrrs fessionals who should expect to have their novel's quality intended to be personal. I PHYLLIS BAKER. VIRGINIA BOURGEOUS JIM DYKMAN. DEE FREEMAN. VICTOR GENER views tested by challenge and who are wor- have no intention of discouraging Parkinson BARBARA HAUGSOEN. MICHAEL OWNBY WENDY SILVER. JEANNE WINDER. JIM WOOD thy of fair compensation for their work. or others from writing realistic fiction that il- EDWARD L. KIMBALL luminates asDects of the Mormon cultural ex- THE SUNSTONE FOUNDATION Ernest L Wilkinson Chai~emeritus perience. Indeed, a careful and incisive social Board ul Trustees J. Reuben Clark Law School exploration and evaluation, such as that of KENT FROGLEY. vice cha~r:STAN CHRISTENSEN ROBYN KNIBBE DAVIS. GLEN LAMBERT Brigham Young Univerisity which the best realistic fiction is capable, MARY ANN MORGAN. LOUIS hlOENCH. MARGARET REISER would be extremely valuable in shaping a ELBERT EUGENE PECK Erealive Dirrctor WLKINSON THE HUMAN genuinely Mormon literature and in trans- ELBERT EUGENE PECK forming our culture. Syrnpossm Chairs MOLLY BENNION. Northwest AM FROM THE pre-Wilkinson era of I continue to stand by my evaluation of ANN STONE & SUSAN PAXMAN HATCH. Chicago MTC: BARBARA RONNOW-BUNKER. Washington. D.C. I Bn]. I had the pleasure of studying under The Set Apait. The book certainly has REBECCA LINFORD. St Paul. Mn. some truly great teachedscholars-Orea potential, though the potential seems to me National Advlrory Board ALAN ACKROM). IRENE BATES Tanner, l? A. Christensen, Thomas Martin, largely unrealized except, as I suggest in my IAN BARBER. MOLLY BENNION Russell Swenson, and Brigham Madsen. Most review, in perhaps one or two chapters. I KATHERINE BOSWELL CARLAN BRADSHAW, BELLUMY BROWN of their accomplishments are recorded in judged the book not only through exterior COLE CAPENER. RENEE CARLSON BLAINE CARLTON. PAUL CARPENTER Jean Ann Waterstradt's They Gladly Taught. standards but according to the best writing to S'EPHEN C. CLARK. DOUGLAS CONDIE In those days, BYU said that knowledge was be found in it, and in light of that writing, I JOHN COX. D. JAMES CROFT WlLFRlED DECOO, ROBERT FILLERUP power; it made the road to truth a personal feel that a good deal of the rest of the book SHELDON GREAVES MARK GUSTAVSON. LIONEL GRADY venture on which one sometimes encoun- fails. It is a book that has the seeds of a better JEFFRN R. HARDYhWN. NANCY HARWARD tered pot holes, sudden turns, and strange book in it, and 1 think that Parkinson de- DIETRICH KEMPSKI. MILES SPENCER KIMBALL SHUNlCHl KUWAHATA. GREG KOFFORD digressions. My loyalty to the Church was serves to be faulted for not bringing the FARRELL LINES. PATRICK MCKENZIE tested and strengthened by the vigor and dif- whole of the book up to the level of the best CARRIE MILES. RONALD L MOLEN MARJORIE NMTON, GRANT OSBORN ferences among the faculty I feel good about chapters. Encouraging him by saying that the ALICE ALLRED POTTMYER. DANIEL H. RECTOR CHRIS SEXTON, RICHARD SHERLOCK my student years at BYU. book is "good enoughn both inhibits GEORGE D. SMlTFl JR.. NICHOLAS SMITH I do not, however, feel so good about my Parkinson's own artistic development and the RICHARD SOUTI~\VICK.MARSHA S STEWART LORlE WINDER STROMBERG. JOHN &JANET TARJAN years as a member of the library faculty un- development of Mormon literature. NOLA W WALLACE. HARThlUT WEISSMANN MARK J. U'ILLIAMS der Ernest L. Wilkinson. Conformity had be- The purpose of criticism should be to come the watchword, Democrats were auto- evaluate the quality of the fiction against

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standards high enough to be worthy of the ALMOST ALL of our actions. importance of the subject matter. These stan- Office does not confer wisdom! Ignor- dards must also be aware of the potential role OW MUCH IS almost all in "almost all ance, inexperience, bias and prejudice, inad- the fiction might play in helping us under- H men, as soon as they get a little author- equate time to contemplate and consider, stand our relationship to both our broad and ity, as they suppose, will exercise unrighteous and many other factors make it easier to local culture. If a work of fiction is bland, un- domintion"? (D&C 121:39). All is obviously adopt a somewhat mindless, simpler "role challenging, or stereotypical, that should be 100 percent. Is almost all 99 percent? Or 98 and rule" ethic in dealing with the human acknowledged by critics rather than being percent? Or a more liberal 95 percent? problems we face. But a "consequential ethic" glossed over because of the appeal of the sub- Obviously, it is more than half, possibly two- requires looking into the future and consid- 'ect matter or because the work does begn to thirds or three-fourths. How few are those ering the collateral possibilities for inadver- break through Mormon writers' typical in- exceptions who are not in the "almost all"? tent harm done to the people involved, their ability to deal realistically with the MTC expe- We male priesthood holders all like to loved ones, and their fellow Church mem- rience. think we are in the elite few Oh, we stumble bers (and the Church itself). The stress We do ourselves a tremendous disservice occasionally, but by and large we are, as andlor pain caused must be accurately per- by praising mediocre books because they're Henry Higgins sang, "a marvelous sex!" ceived and empathized with. simply the best that we have before us. When we go up the ladder of office, the Each soul, a child of god, is of equal value Mormon literature has suffered immensely opportunities (and temptations) to exercise in our savior's eyes, so we are told, and,the from critics' willingness to serve as apologsts "unrighteous dominion" increase exponen- concern for the "lost sheep," with the dire for it. It will continue to suffer as long as we tially. The higher the office, the more oppor- consequences if we cause one of these to as critics remain willing to praise the halfway tunities for (and the greater difficulty in "fall," should give us pause daily. Any correc- good instead of pushing writers toward avoiding) such condemned behavior, when tion ("speaking sharply") is to be followed by greater stylistic, aesthetic, and cultural suc- we exercise the "duties" and the "authority" an increase of unfeigned love so the reproved cesses. of office conferred on us from echelons one will not think us their enemy. All actions BRIAN EVENSON above, with everyone pointing upward (fi- of an authority carry with it the dangers of Stillwater; OK nally to deity) as the source and justification psychological domination, which are inher-

SESQUICENTENNIAL

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 5

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ent in the authority structure, and these must that's about as good as you get. And that sim- challenge to see an analogy between today's be neutralized by true compassion. ple analogy got us through the whole pioneer spiritual struggles and the physical chal- Throughout religious history, the domina- syndrome just fine. lenges of our pioneer founders. tion score has been disgracefully high, actu- Maybe I haven't got everything published There are many of us who are not particu- ally making a mockery of the fundamental on this event, but I don't recall anything ex- larly fond of Utah, but I think most of us rules for dealing with fellow church mem- clusive about it. Surely Van Beek doesn't would at least admit that it has been of some bers or with other religions. The deadly insis- really think, as he seems to imply, that the importance in general Church history. It's tence on some belief principle-with Church, by asking its members to celebrate time for Van Beek to give up his petty jeal- condemnation, circumscription, spiritual ex- one event, is also asking them to jettison the ousies and accept that the great formative pe- ecution, burning, and other "penalties"- rest of human history. Struggle, sacrifice, riod of the modem Church took place in a have blackened all religious history. overcoming odds-those are among the state he doesn't like. If those early Saints had The pompous, frightened little men, great archetypes of human experience. not gone through the sacrifices we celebrate puffed up by the title of office and its power, People love to read about them in good nov- this year, the Church would be just another who hunker down behind their impenetra- els, so why should they find the same quali- little known curiosity of American history, ble, "god's will" bamcade (their minds tightly ties odious just because they were like the Strangites or the Reorganites. 1 hope closed) are the "true believers" who Satan demonstrated once in Utah? 1 spent my mis- he doesn't find that a cheering prospect. uses to disgrace and destroy religion. sion in Holland and recall many native cul- CLIFFORDSORENSEN LEW b! WALIACE tural events sponsored by the Church. Has San Gabriot, CA that all been stopped? as everyone been or- BODY, PARTS, & PASSIONS dered into denim and rringham and been told ., u PIONEERS to spend their days pulling handcarts along ARRIE MILES'S ARTICLE, "The the dikes? The fact is that Van Beek can cele- C Genesis of Gender, Or Why Mother in ALTER VAN BEEK'S letter "0 brate anything he wants. The Church is just Heaven Can't Save Youn (SUNSTONE,July W Pioneers!" (SUNSTONE,Apr. 1997) asking him to take a day to commemorate a 1997) is first rate. Her statement that has got to be one of the stupidest I have read. little Church history. It won't hurt. "Anyone who has tried to live her life solely First of all, the Church is not celebrating a If Van Beek would look around, he would within the gender box knows that there is "150 years of Utah pioneer history," but find many examples of pioneer spirit in not enough room in there for a whole per- rather the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Holland. I read De Ster every month and son, let along a god will resonate with many the pioneers in Utah. Van Beek sounds a bit there's almost always a story about some little men as well as women. Miles assertion that like a New York Jew asking why he should branch struggling to sunive or even grow "God must be more than all the metaphors celebrate Passover when he's never been to under the harsh spiritual conditions of mod- we use to describe hirnlher" should be com- either Egypt or Israel. After all, doesn't New em life. It's really not such a great intellectual mitted to memory, if not carved in stone. York have its own history? My fellow Ugandan members, who tend to be quite -- limited in education and who have no pioneer tradition at all, took maybe ten minutes to understand the concept of "pioneer" as we use it in the CI. Church. I can't imagine it 5 would take any other group " I , much longer. Of course, ! 8 these are humble people. Members here are used to poverty and a hard daily grind just to survive, and they were rather impressed that early members voluntar- ily underwent the same conditions for the sake of their religion. We celebrated Pioneer Day by going out to Mulago Hospital, where we scrubbed the corridors and cleaned the rat-infested grounds. Maybe there wasn't faith in every swab of the mop or slash of the panga, but there was faith in a lot of them, and

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 7 SUNSTONE

She is correct that the Bible gives us rich GRAVE HUMOR thies of its people, their respect for the laws and varied metaphors to help us understand of the land and their loyalty to high ideals." and relate to God. To take one of these N response to the news story, "Elder 1 have often acted as funeral director for metaphors, such as "father," literalize it and I Packer Outlines 'Unwritten Order'. people of other faiths. I am reminded of then maintain that God is in actuality mascu- (SUNSTONE,Apr. 1997). I have been profes- bringing casketed remains into a church for a line is not only to deify gender, as Miles sionally involved in funerals for over twenty funeral service and meeting a distressed cler- points out, but it is also to absolutize our lim- years, I have long taken pride in the reverent gyman who asks, "And which one of my ited human understanding and circumscribe and dignified manner in which Latter-day parishioners is this? Now, what was that God in a way that many Christians would Saints care for their dead. Perhaps no other name again?" It is not unusual for the family consider idolatrous. If there are any other faith so exemplifies the words of the English of the deceased after the funeral service, to Christian faith traditions that assert that God statesman William Gladstone: "Show me the comment, "Pastor Johnson didn't even men- is literally a male, I am not aware of them. manner in which a nation or community tion Dad's name." FRANCES LEE MENLOVE cares for its dead, and I will, with mathemat- Which brings me to my point-Elder Berkeley, CA ical exactness, measure the tender syrnpa- Packer's statement that "people need to hear about the Atonement, not the deceased. ...

RE'

tis introduction to his accla nslation of Genesis, Robert ebrew scl 1 author c$The Art Liblical Narrative, describes in recnnical but facinating detail itls jrusrranon.. w~rnmoaern . muren.1 1. rranslations.L.

strate. The continui moreover, for writer 5 in our oum age )NE TI-IINKS OF THE GR EAT EN( -. ng appeal,...... 1 among- - .-~wmtieth-century-.- novel ists-writ en like Joyce, ot this syntax dominated by "and," which highhghts the dlscrete Nabokc)v, Faulkner, and Virginia WooIf-there is not one among event, suggests that parallel syntax may still be a perfectly viable way to represent in English the studied parallelis;m of verbIS and them whose use of language, includin,g ...the depll oyment . of. syntax, even vaguely resembles the workaday simplicity and patly ,,..,.,rnncic- clauses of ancient Hebrew narrative. tent orderliness that recent translators of the Bible have posited as Since,a literary s tyle is corr posed of 1 elements as well the norm of modem English. It is also well to keep in mind that lit- as larger s eatures. an ~~~n~lishtr lust confront the whether t he ubiquil ew particle that erary style, like many other aspects of literature, is constantly self- pesky qu . . recapitulative, invoking recollections o fits near and distant literary means "and should be represented at all in translation. This is ob- antecedents, so that modemists like Jo:yce and Fa ulkner sornetimes viously not a problem when the waw simply connects two nouns- echo biblical language and cadences, and a ma1nnered stylist like as in "the heavens and the earthn-but what of its constant use at

nertivp ~ ~~~ Hemingway, in making "andn his most prominent con L. CI....,, the beginning of sentences and clauses urefixed to verbs? The argu- surely has the King James Version of the Bible in mind. An(1 in any ment aga inst transl;ating it in these case:5 is that th Ie primary func- event, the broad history of both Semitic and European la1Iguages tion of tb Ie waw apl3ended to a verb is 1not to sigrIify "and 1but to and literatures evinces a strong differentiation in most peri ods be- indicate I:hat the H ebrew pre :fix conjug;ation, wh ich othemJise is . ? tween e nguage an d the language of lite:rature. used for actlons yet to be completed, 1s reporting past events The In of bibli cal philologists that parallel s]ptax is (hence its designation in the terminology of classical Hebrew gram- modem li terary English is belied by the F~ersistent F lresence mar as "the waw of conversion"). It is far from clear, as modem alien-. to.. . .-. 01 highly wrought paratactic prose even at the end 01 the t~,..,.,....mntioth Bible scholars tend to assume, that the fulfillment of one linguisitc century. A variety of self-conscious English stylists in the modem function by a partic:le of speec:h automat.ically excl udes any cjthers; era, from Gertrude Stein to Cormac McCarthy, have exh ibited a on the contrary, it is kely that fc,r the ancilent audien ce the n which waw appcmded to tlhe verb bo th convert ed its temiporal aspelct and fondness for chains of parallel utterances linked by "andn i~ . - - the basic sentence-type is the same structurally as that use :d again continued to signify "and." But, semantics aside, the general prac- and again in biblical prose. What such a style m akes mani fest in a tice of modem English translators of suppressing the "and w,hen it narrative is a series of more or less discrete event:5, or micro. .-events, is attached to a verb has the effect of changing the tempo, rh ythm, in a chain, not unlike the biblical names of begetters and begotten and construction of events in biblical narrative. Let me illustrate bv that are strung one after another in the chains of the genealogical quoting 2I narrative sequence from Gene n ver- lists. The biblical writers generally chose not to order these events sion. which reprodl~ces every "and" and every elenlent of par;ataxis, and ;hen in the ven;ion of the Revised El nglish Bib1e. ...Its n:rider- in ramified networks of causal, conceptual, or temporal subordina- - - ...... -. tion, not because hypotaxis was an unavailak ~leoption, , as the ing of these sentences is roughly interchangeable with any ot the opening verses of the second Creation story (2:4- -5) clearly demon- other mc e Jerusale the New J ewish

PAGE 8 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE

Often the spirit is repulsed by the humorous Is it the seriousness of President Gordon B. neral service, nor was it because of in-depth experiences and jokes when the time could Hinckley that has touched the hearts of our teachings regarding the Plan of Salvation. It be devoted to teaching things of the spirit." youth and has quieted prying, investigative was because our talks about the deceased Doesn't the Church exclusively have three reporters, or is it his skillful use humor? give those affected by death an opportunity hours a week of its faithful members' time for One of my psychology professors in mor- to express their grief and to mark a closure in teaching doctrine and schooling them in the tuary college often remarked that of all reli- that life by remembering the sad occasions as scriptures? Why, then, may we not take an gions that he had conducted services for, the well as the humorous. hour to reflect on a person's life, to buoy up LDS people had the most thorough and RANDY MCDONALD the spirits of the family, and to use humor as healthy understanding of psychological prin- Washington, UT a salve in assisting friends and family in find- cipals. Furthermore, he stated that if more re- ing a closure to the deceased's life? ligions would adhere to LDS funeral ETTERS IDENTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION ARE Often we take ourselves too seriously, ei- practices, grieving families would find less LEDITED FOR CLARITY, TONE, DUPLICATION. ther in positions of authority or in our daily need for post-grief counseling. AND VERBOSITY. LETTERS ADDRESSED TO walks of life. Our Heavenly Father blessed us This wasn't because there was more AUTHORS WILL BE FORWARDED, UNOPENED. indeed with the ability to laugh as well as cry taught about the Atonement during the fu- (fax: 801/355-4043; e-rnail: [email protected])

Public:ation Society, Speisctr-one Inight choow. I begjn in the reiterate:d "and," then, pla;ys an imflortant rol le in creal:ing the middl e of verse 16, where Rebekah t)ecomes ttle subject e~f a series rhythm of the stc,ry, in phonetically F)unctuatin, g the fonvard-dri-

01 act1Lons. ving mc Dvement ccf the prose. The elirnination olf the "and " in the . . and sh~e came down to the spring anc i filled he.r jug Revised English B ible and in all its moc lem cousilns produce:s-cer- and came tlack up. And the servant ran t oward her and tainly tc 3 my ear- -an abrupt, awkwarc1 effect in the sound pattern . <,.' . . , , , .. .. .- ~ti~rear- sala, .-nay,let me sip a bit of water from your jug:- &And .. .- nf-. the-..- language,. or to put it more strictly, a kind 01 narr: she said, "Drink, my lord," and she hurried and ti13ped rhythm ia. dom her jug on one hand and let him drink. And stie let More is at stalte here th;m pleasin)5 sounds. for the hemine of him drink his fill and said, "For your camels, too. I shall the rep1~ated actio ns is in fac :t subtly b~~t significantly reduc,ed in all . . . . - draw water until they drink their fill." And she hu. the rhy:hmically deficient versions. She of course performs roughly and emptied her jug into the trough, and she ran aga the sanle acts in the different versions-politely offering 7iwater to the well to draw water and drew water for all his carnels. the stra nger, lowering her jug so that he can drink, raptd'ly going ... , And this is how the Revised English Bible, in keeping wtn tne hark----. -.sr ~d forth to the spring to bring water for the camels,.: Riit--. in... preva'iling assunnptions of most rece :nt translations, renders these the compression s, syntactical reorderings, and stop-and-start verses; in what is ; presumecI to be sen:sible modem Englisk movements of the : modemiiring version, the encounter at the well 5;he went d own to tht :spring, fi lled her jar, and cam and Ret ,ekah's act.ions are m,ade to seem rather matter-of-fac:t, how- "..--m., again. Abraham's servant hurried to meet her and said, cVcI cnemplary her impulse of hospitality This8 tends to obscure "Will you give me a little water from your jar?" "P'lease what the Hebrew highlights, which is that she i!; doing solmething drink, sir," she answered, and at once lowered her js ~ron quite extraordinary. Rebekah at the well presen ts one of the rare ,- .c.. r" hem- her hand to let him drink. When she had finished givlnu. . ---0 hihlirnl- .- -.- - - instances of the performance of an act ot --nomen#- *.-.- 1iim a drin'k, she saicI. "I shall draw water also for your ism. Th le servant 1begins by ;asking modestly to "sip a bit ol F water," c:amels unti 1 they have: had enou gh." She quickly em1)tied as thou gh all he wanted wf:re to wet his lips. B;ut we nee d to re- 1:ier jar ..into . the water trough, ar~d then hurrying aga member, as the ancient auclience sun:ly did, th .at a came I after a the well she drew water and watered all the camels. long desert journey can drink as much as twenty-live gallon,s of wa- , There is, as one would expect, some modification of biblical ter, and there are ten camels here whom Rebekah offers t o water parataxis, though it is not so extreme here as elsewhere in the "until they drink their fill." The chain of verbs tightly linke:d by all

Revised English Bible: "And she let him drink his fill" is convened the "and's" does an admirable job in conveying this sensl-P nf- - the- * .- into an introductory adverbial clause . "When s!he had finiished giv- young 1goman's h urling herself with prodigious speed intcI the se- ing hi m a drink'' (actually in conson;ince with I:he otherwise parat- quence of requirecd actions. 1Even her dialogue is scarcely a 13ause in actic King James Version) : "and she hurried" is compressed into the nanrative monlentum, bi .~tis integrated syntactically anc i rhyth- "quickly"; "and she ran again" becomes the participial "hurrying mically into the chain: "And she said, 'Drink, my lord,' rand she again." (Moves of this sort, it should be said, push translation to the hurried and tipped down her jug. . . . And she hurried and Irmptied verge of paraphrase-recasting and interpreting the original inher jug into the trough, and she ran again to the well to draw water stead of representing it.) The most striking divergence between -and- - - dr~-- - w water for all his camels." The parallel syntax and the...- bar---. these two versic)ns is that mine has fifteen "arI&," corresponding rage of "an&," far from being the reflc zx of a "primitiven la nguage, precis;ely to fifteen occurre:nces of the particle ~vawin the Hebrew, are as a'rtfully effective in furthering thc r ends of tlne narrative as any wherc:as the Rev ised English Bible ma lnages wit11 just five. What dif- device cme could find in a sophisticated modem novelist. t3 . . - .- ference does this make? To begin with, it should be observed that the waw, whatever is claimed about its linguistic function, is by no KOBERT ALTER means an inaudible element in the phonetics of the Hebrew text: )m Genesis: Translation and Commentary we must keep constantly in mind that these narratives were com- V W Norton, New York, 1996, wiil-~~l posed to be healrd, not me rely to be c y a reader! i eye. The Sunston e welcomes submissionlsfor this st

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 9 TURNING THE TIME OVER TO ... Soren Kierkegaard we confront the feeling that God is mysteriously infinite, that we are fallibly human, and that a vast gulf separates the one condition from the other.' Simple Wayne SC~OW faith may give us a measure of courage and confidence to persevere in the dark night of mortality, but it does not conjure away the chasm nor supplant the need to discover in SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION: humility the greater mysteries of godhood. The latter is a project at which we toil not merely individually but collectively and cu- LINGUISTIC FIGUMTION AND THE mulatively in our history. As individuals, our attempts to know ~od-willbe substantially PROBLEM OF KNOWING GOD influenced by the particular time and place we join the collective endeavor.

LANGUAGE-BASED EPISTEMOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS Language is never the thing; it is only an approximation.

OR most of us, the effort to learn about God is largely indirect. In the F absence of immediate personal revelation of the divine, we focus on the relevant experience of other persons, living and dead, whose testimony is authoritative and compelling. Initially, we are taught by our elders, themselves the inheritors of traditional teachings. In these circumstances, the Bible seems a particularly promising source of enlightenment concerning God's being and will. And so it is, though not if approached by the sim- plistic, proof-texting method I learned as a missionary. When 1 first began to read the Bible on its own terms, without an a priori agenda, I had to admit that it contained in re- I believe that the divine exists perfectly, ideally But its revelation spect to God and the divine spirit, if not out- to US will Occur only as We overcome, with God's help ight contradictions, then a multitude of highly ambiguous statements. To be sure, and with our own desire and effort, the obstacles in our there were many references to GO^ in anthro- evolutionary path to understanding. pomorphic terms, but there were also fre- quent instances where the divine presence had been experienced in some other form- until one has actually achieved godhood will wind, spirit, cloud, pillar of fire, angel, et For now we see through a glass, he or she in the fullest sense know God. In cetera. (Moses' first direct encounter with the darkly; but then face to face: now I the meantime, we are engaged in a very long Lord is a good example; not only does he know in part; but then shall I and arduous process of evolutionary perceive God as a "flame of fire out of the know even as also I am known. learning. midst of a bush," but the divine presence is -1 CORINTHIANS13: 12 The attempt to know God fmm a mortal ambiguously referred to as both God and "the vantage point is more complex than is some- angel of the Lord [Exodus 3:2-4]). A catalog times thought. A simplified missionary ap- of biblical texts referring to deity would F WE TAKE seriously the formidable proach to LDs theology proclaims a familiar demonstrate the difficulty, indeed impossi- goal of becoming "as God is," a raison and readily accessible deity, whose bodily re- bility, of our arriving at conclusive literal def- I d'etre central to Latter-day Saint theology, ality is the pattern for our own, whose habits initions about God if all of these texts are we must seek to know God as fully as our of mind and whose purposes may be known considered. mortal condition will allow. Of course, not by the serious seeker. Yet this emphasis on How can we account for this scriptural the comfortingly familiar elements in a ambiguity? To lay the blame on biblical mis- WAYNE SCHOW is a professor of English at parent-child / divine-human relationship fails translation is not sufficient, for the same ldaho State University (e-mail: schowayn@lsu. to acknowledge a corollary truth experienced problem exists with other LDs scriptures. It is edu). by many of us as we seek to know God: like more helpful to reflect on an inevitable epis-

PAGE 10 SEPTEMBER 1997 II Weproject our knowing through what we already know. Thus, while we do not in this way create God, we do

substantially create our perception of the divine. "

temologcal obstacle that scriptural revela- sible: even the possibility of two persons into," hence figuratively to "infuse with an tion of the divine must confront-the inade- achieving a completely equivalent under- animating influence." This results in spiritual quacy of language to express fully our standing of such a text in a shared language is enlightenment, another buried metaphor. human experience. theoretically nonexistent (and texts in gen- These figures illustrate how, when humans Here we encounter a paradox: we tend to eral are more complexly ambiguous than have experienced Go& animating presence think of language as a means for giving form most people realize). At best, we can only ar- immediately and powerfully, they try to grasp and clarity to our thought, but since it is not rive at acceptable approximations of the and articulate the mystery. a perfect instrument, its limitations impede same meaning. Cognitive science, as well as linguistic as well as advance our understanding. theory, has recognized this extensive human Indeed, some philosophers of language argue We describe in imprecise, poetic, human propensity to apprehend the world through that thought is not even possible outside of images because we have no better way. figuration. It is not simply that we seek a po- language: it is the mode in which we exist, etic way to express what we otherwise know: making us all the more bound by its con- SIDE from these theoretical difficul- rather, non-literal figuration is essential to our straints. As Nietzsche once observed, "We ties, the scriptural descriptions of cognition; it is the way our brains f~nction.~ have to cease to think if we refuse to do it in A deity are extremely problematic. The relevance of this to how God is repre- the prison house of language."2 Perhaps in Why are they not characterized-at least sented in scripture-and in human minds this context language can be metaphorically within the same language and culture-by generally-is clear. If we begin existentially conceived as Paul's glass, through which in greater clarity and consistency? Linguistic with an awareness of the divine, if we appre- this life we see darkly Let us consider the theory sheds some light on this matter.j To a hend it as mysterious and infinite, yet pow- ways in which language obscures our vision. surprising degree, we describe our world and erful and present in our lives, we must find a We may begin with the problem of trans- our experience in figurative language-in way to convey our perceptions. And, since lation in relation to sacred texts. Our eighth metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche.4 We discursive description largely fails, the lan- article of faith proclaims the Bible to be Go& do this because literal discursive language so guage-making portion of our human brains word "as far as it is translated correctly." The inadequately conveys the subtle substance of represents the ineffable divine through fig- general assumption is that its "errors" are the our experience of intangible things-in- ures familiar from our experience. We project result of either linguistic ineptitude or lack of cluding especially our emotional, spiritual, our knowing through what we already know. spiritual inspiration-or both. In reality, the transcendent experiences--that we resort to Thus, while we do not in this way create problem is not so much in the translators as comparisons. Can anyone, for example, de- God, we do substantially create our perception in the nature of language itself, for the fol- scribe the experience of spiritual conversion of the divine. lowing reasons: First, every language is cul- without recourse to figuration ("burning in ture bound, which limits the range of what it the bosom," being "born again," being We understand God's characteristics can express, and no two cultures are exactly "washed clean in the blood of the Lamb)? in terms of our own values. the same. This goes beyond unique idiomatic Our everyday language is thus more "po- expressions that lose nuance in translation; it etic" than most of us realize. With figuration CCORDINGLY, if the divine is per- is a reflection of subtle and not so subtle dif- we attempt to overcome the limitations of lit- ceived as being capable of thought ferences in cultural values and experience, eral discursive language by constructing un- A and action, we conceive it in anthro- manifested in both semantics and linguistic derstandable, non-literal analoges. These are pomorphic terms understandable to us. If we morphology. Second, no language is suffi- but linguistic approximations, but they are are impressed that the divine will is revealed ciently refined to achieve a consistently per- satisfying because, in linking the ineffable to to us, we say we "hear God's voice." In our at- fect equivalence between linguistic signifier the everyday, they make the former roughly tempts to grasp the mind of God, we at- and referrant (between linguistic expression graspable and vividly felt. tribute to him human emotions such as and its object); this is particularly so with So ingrained, so deep-rooted is this habit anger, jealousy, love, patience-emotional discourse treating abstract and intangible of perception that our language abounds in currency with which we are familiar. When matters. Third, even those who share the buried metaphors, expressions so common we speak of God as creator, father, lord, we same culture and the same language cannot that we frequently fail to notice that they are, are employing buried metaphors derived communicate perfectly with each other; in fact, figurative. Consider, for example, the from earthly roles and relationships. (The every individual's experience of his native previous sentence. The words ingrained, and word "lord," for example, is not a literal tongue varies because our grasp of language deep-rooted, and buried, and expression are all translation from the Hebrew, but an Old is rooted in our individual life experience, metaphors. Consider another vivid and rele- English word describing a powerful figure in and even closely related individuals have vant example of how our spiritual discourse feudal society; it was chosen by translators as varylng experience. is rooted in figurative speech, the word inspi- a synonym for God because of its figurative For these reasons, not only is a perfectly ration, with its submerged metaphor: spire appropriateness.) If we idealize the divine as equivalent translation of any complex text from middle English, meaning "to breathe," being loftily above us, we associate God with from one language to another simply impos- hence inspire, meaning literally "to breathe high places, such as mountain tops and

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 11 SUNSTONE

clouds, and we say that God "comes down" battleground will mete out swift and sure final-moment of judgment, our spiritual from heaven (e.g., Exodus 19:3, 9, 11). If we punishment to the unfaithful who fail in the growth is ongoing, with possibility for perceive God as powerful, we associate him great encounter. eternal adjustment and progress. In this with awesome forces we understand, with This familiar, elaborately developed mili- model God is seen not as a stem judge or a thunder, lightning and flood, with supemat- tary conceit, influenced by Genesis and the super-combatant, but rather as a great and ural magic such as changing staves into Book of Revelation in particular, reinforced patient teacher, and we are not warriors in a snakes (Exodus 7); in short, with mastery by our subsequent religous literature (such defensive posture but learners in an open over the material world. If we perceive the as Milton's Paradise Lost and scores of hymn and forgiving spiritual space. divine mastery as being mysteriously intel- texts), does more than simply express our Clearly, these metaphorical models are in- lectual, we equate it with the Word: ("And cultural perception of the divine; it helps to compatible (although, paradoxically, they the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among create and to reinforce powerfully in young exist side by side in our religious texts). The us" (John 1: 1, 14). If we associate the divine minds a particular view of God and of our re- ultimate objective truth about God to which power with fecundity, we link God with the lationship to him. both speak cannot lie in both directions. Not feminine-at least this has been true in most Consider how different the effect on our only will our spiritual lives be significantly of the religious mythologies of the world, in- perception if, instead, we choose to frame different, depending on which of these cluding those of India, Egypt, and Greece (in our spiritual discourse in a quite different models we find most influential: our very the Christian tradition, the cult of the Virgn metaphorical scheme, one not so pervasive perception about God and the nature of the Mary is an indirect expression of this associa- but nevertheless discernible in some comers divine is altered. Ultimately, one's preference tion). When we want to emphasize the inef- of Christian literature: that our spiritual for one of these figurative systems over the fable rather than the anthropomorphically quest is an educational process in which, other tells more about the subjective truth of familiar, we turn to metaphors of fire or light, with Go& loving support, we seek to the individual and his or her efforts to be- or wind or spirit (e.g., Matt. 3:11, 16; Ex. broaden our experience through trial and come like God than it tells about the divine 13:21; John 1:5-9, Acts 2:2-4, 17). error. This metaphorical model suggests that reality Once we recognize these scriptural char- rather than coming to a temble-and acteristics as metaphors, their considerable and contradictory variety ceases to be problematic. We understand that it is not the literal terms of the figures that are being emphasized, but rather the elevated, powerful, fecund, creative, sheltering qualities of divinity that we are in the process of discov- ering. Instead of leading to confusion, such metaphorical richness helps us appreciate the multi-faceted, awesome, and ultimately mysterious nature of God.

The metaphors we choose to describe God in turn shape us.

E can understand this in part by looking from another angle at W the influence of figurative language on our concept of the divine. In the representation of our spiritual understanding as derived from the Bible and elaborated in many other religious texts, several over- arching figurational schemes are identifiable. One of the most formative and dominant is that in which our spiritual lives are conceived in relation to a great military conflict. We are soldiers, fighting either on the side of good or of evil. Christ and Satan are the opposing generals, to one of whom we must decide to give our allegiance. "We are all enlisted till the conflict is over"; "we are marching on to glory" with, we hope, a great reward in store; we must be ever vigilant and valiant, lest the enemy (the tempter) surprise and overcome us. Our spiritual lives are thus fraught with danger and the possibility of everlasting "Nothing personal-I just prefer a religion that doesn't require me perdition. The God who presides over this to justfy being a liberal Democrat."

PAGE 12 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE

IMPLICATIONS deity in terms of both male and female, and if Thought, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge Are we merely creating God in our own image? my prayer takes the form of communion University Press, 1993). with a heavenly mother as well as a heavenly 4. Metaphor is the most pervasive of these tropes. Broadly speaking, it denotes "a condensed OST human beings feel an in- father, that is my way of expressing also my verbal relat~onIn which an idea, image, or symbol herent need to discover the divine, gratitude and veneration for the mysterious may, by the presence of one or more other ideas, im- M to define themselves and order pfts of life that I find embodied in and ex- ages, or symbols, be enhanced in vividness, com- their lives in relation to it. Considered from a pressed by wives, mothers, and daughters. It plexity, or breadth of implication." Princeton cultural perspective, the perfecting of this is a metaphorical projection of my search for Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics). At a subtle level, discovery is not achieved quickly through God through the noblest values I can envi- metaphor is operating when an abstraction IS expressed in concrete imagery Metonymy and synec- single-faceted revelation, for the divine is sion. It says that I mean to do God's work by doche are more specialized tropes. The former occurs complexly ideal. Rather, the human concep- recognizing the need for creative balance and when one term is substituted for another with whlch tion of God evolves gradually and somewhat wholeness in our human environment, that it stands in close relatlonsh~p:e.g.. "In the beginning irregularly In primitive stages of culture, ig- with my thoughts and words 1 will strive to was the Word," where the Word stands for Christ; or norance, impotence, and fear in the face of make such values prevail equally. in George Herbert's line, "Love bade me welcome." in nature's power explain human attempts to In suggesting that humans pursue God by which Love is understood as equivalent to Christ. In placate a severe deity (as Bertrand Russell ar- envisioning him in terms of their own synecdoche, a significant part stands for the whole: e.g., the All-Seeing Eye represents God. gues in his famous essay, "A Free Man's highest values, often figuratively expressed, I 5. See, for example, Mark Johnson, The Body in worshipn6);but as the experience of the race do not mean simply and cynically that "man the Mind: The Bodily Basis ofMeaning, Imagination, and expands, the impulse to connect with God creates God in his own image" as the phrase Reason (University of Chicago Press, 1987). becomes an expression of our quest for the is usually understood. That is, I do not mean 6. In Mysticism and Logic (George Allen & highest human potential. that God has no separate existence except as Unwn, 1917). Our search for the "personality" of God is a figment of human imapnation. I believe 7. I am persuaded that God's revelation comes to us only when-and to the degree that-we are in actuality an attribution to God of our that the divine exists perfectly, ideally But its prepared to receive it. The revelation concemlng highest evolving values, a projection of the revelation to us will occur only as we over- Blacks and the priesthood is a recent case in point. noblest ideals we in our cultural context can come, with God's help and with our own de- The evolut~onaryimplications of this are clear. conceive. Such projection is the mechanism sire and effort, the obstacles in our 8. A related discussion, which considers our by which humans come step by step to know evolutionary path to understanding. spiritual development in the context of linguistic and him.' If, as in a primitive culture, the highest Given our current condition in mortality, cultural contingency, is found in Scott Abbott's "Will We Find Zion or Make It?: An Essay on good is power, worshipped in a context of lerkegaard is undoubtedly right in some Postmodemlty and Revelation." SUNSTONE, 17:3 abject fear, then power will be the principal sense: we cannot know God completely, per- (Feb. 1994). 16-21. element in the prevailing perception of God. fectly But in pursuing our highest aspira- If in a different age, personal freedom is the tions, our noblest thought, our most ethical highest good envisioned by mortals, then and creative life, we are in the process of dis- free agency will be central to the cultural un- covering the divine, we are on the evolu- derstanding of God. If sexual sensation is tionary high road toward truly knowing God. paramount in the prevailing system of values, The value of any particular figuration with MUDDY BROWN or creativity, or obedience, or personal which groups or individuals imagine God serenity, or ascetic renunciation, or social jus- will be directly proportional to the degree it Even after it stops raining, tice, then the divine will be envisioned, de- motivates them to pursue that learning rain falls from branches. fined, and pursued in those terms. It should process intensely, creatively, to the degree it Bits of sky between crowns be obvious that in any cultural context, lin- kindles their desire to become like ~od.'V of trees turn indigo, trail guistic figuration in relation to the divine is muddy brown. stands in a reciprocal relation to values: it NOTES Ferns are prehistoric, both influences and is influenced by them. but right here near 1. Soren Klerkegaard. Fear and Trembling, Here is an important contemporary ex- my shoulder. ample: There is a strong tendency on the part passim. of many people just now to recognize and 2. Nietzsche's actual words are, Vir horen auf I sit on remains of a zu denken, wenn wir es n~chtin dem Sprachlichen value the feminine. This impulse may be fallen log. It is cold. Zwange tun wollen . . ." (Der Wille zur Macht. seen as a pendulum swlng, a recognition that [Leipz~g:Alfred Kroner Verlag, 19231 190). In a 1968 Darkening trees do not seem our world is and has been for some time translat~on.W Kaufmann and R. J. Holllngdale ren- threatening. I want to think dominantly patriarchal, that the feminine has dered this oulte Ilterallv as follows: "We cease to think what they think. Small stream been undervalued, and that some correction when we refuse to do so under the constraint of lan- trickles by is both desirable and appropriate. Such an guage." But ~tis the metaphoncal translat~on("prison house of language") [hat srlcks in the mind and IS Back where tall buildings adjustment is tied to our evolving values of usually quoted by language theonsts writing in absorb people, elevators justice and enlightenment. English. This alteration. fa~thfulIn spint to the orig- up and down cany faces. It is not surprising then that many would lnal, exemplifies the flu~d~tyof the boundanes be- My city tries to be a forest. project such desire by incorporating tween literal and figurative language, a central metaphorically the feminine into their con- concern of my paper I take a deep breath and spill ception of deity, that many would feel the 3 See George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, out into trees. Stronger need for a mother goddess as well as a father Metaphors We Live By (Un~versityof Chlcago Press, by forests I stand straight. 1980). See also Andrew Onon): Melaphor and god. I myself feel comfortable envisioning -RUSSELL SALAMON

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 13 Critical Matters correct their misconceptions. Those who choose this path very often end up alienating themselves from the people they most want to serve. This is often a tremendous personal sacrifice, WHITHER OUR GREAT but it should never come as a surprise. The profession of a WRITERS? gadfly is a noble one, and even a necessary one at times, but it is a very poor way to make friends with a horse. VERY THREE MONTHS OR SO, THE DISCUSSION -MICHAEL AUSTIN on the Association for Mormon Letters e-mail group inevitably turns to the question, "Why has the Mormon My Creed community produced so few great writers?" After somebody poses the initial question, the battle lines are quickly drawn between the "conservatives," who maintain that the world's MY PATCHWORK QUILT standards for greatness in literature are incompatible with revealed religion, and the "liberals," who argue that Mormons HIS PATCHWORK QUILT I HAVE STITCHED will never have great literature until we, as a community, can together is mine, but the fragments of material come learn to entertain uncomfortable questions about our culture, T from many sources. As a Mormon, 1don't think of my- our motives, and our doctrines. self as significantly different from others of the faith: I'm a foot The more I participate in these discussions, the less I am in- soldier of the Restoration. clined to agree with either of the standard positions. I do be- My life has conformed to the way a "Mormon boy" should lieve, firmly and fundamentally, that religion and literature be: 1 attended all the meetings, got all the awards, and com- share the same basic goal: to improve our understanding of pleted all the programs. I served when called, fasted regularly, ourselves and of the worlds we inhabit. 1 also know that the and payed tithing, fast offerings, building funds, and whatever Mormon community can react violently, and often unfairly, else was needed. I bought a house in a low-income neighbor- when artists of any kind question perceptions that most of its hood of Albuquerque, New Mexico, because the stake presi- members hold inviolable. But, in this respect, Mormons are no dent thought the Pingrees should live there. I have served two different than any other community on earth. Literature, when full-time missions, sat on several high councils, been a mem- it functions properly, challenges people's perceptions. We can ber of multiple bishoprics, been totally immersed in the youth learn nothing from novels, plays, and poems that do nothing programs of Scouting, MIA, and seminary but confirm what we already know. But all communities, no Doing the aforementioned required the sacrifice of career matter how loving and supportive, resent being challenged. opportunities, money, and-most importantly-time with my Furthermore, there is very little historical evidence to sup- wife and family during the years the children were growing up. port the notion that community support is necessary for, or This doesn't distinguish me from mynads of other Latter-day even helpful to, the production of great literature. Milton came Saints. I have always considered mysew a Mormon through very close to losing his head, Cervantes and Bunyan wrote and through, and I still do. I love to attend meetings of my their great masterpieces in prison, and Defoe was put in the ward, to engage in the give-and-take of a stimulating gospel stocks for the religious heterodoxy of one of his earliest works. doctrine Sunday School class. I feel a special bond with priest- In our century,James Joyce was despised by his Irish Catholic hood holders when I meet with them in many countries of the community, William Faulkner was hated throughout the world. Singing the hymns of the Restoration makes my spirit South, and Salman Rushdie can't even make public appear- soar. Rising with the congregation in the Tabernacle to recog- ances without fear of assassination. Yet each of these authors nize the arrival of the Prophet to start a session of general con- produced recognizably great literature at the same time that ference is a solemn event I can never forget. their highly esteemed contemporaries were producing dreck. I have been my happiest while spending long hours in con- Thus, when I hear Mormon writers and academics com- structing chapels, while serving as mission president to a plain that the Mormon community is not interested in, or multi-cultural and multi-national missionary force, while ready for, "great literature," I wince. No community has ever teaching early-morning seminary, and while being bishop in been prepared for the great writers and profound thinkers who different wards. remind them of their faults, criticize their shortcomings, and Notwithstanding all the things in my life that are Momon

PAGE 14 SEPTEMBER 1997 and should slot me into the ranks of the faithful marching on- dergo a transformation similar to that experienced by Peter ward (to return to the foot soldier metaphor), there are times and Spencer, one leading them to direct that women in the when I find myself out of step with the Latter-day Saint ca- Church should have a broader role in managing the affairs of dence, marching to an offbeat sound. the Kingdom. An inquiry to the heavens might also be made While I am generally in harmony with the basic precepts of and an answer received regarding the appropriateness of cur- the restored gospel, dissonance arises because I am bothered rent Church practices toward those whose sexual orientation by the concept that the collective leadership of the Church is varies from the traditional. infallible. This theme is implied and specifically expressed in conference discourses, magazines, and lesson manuals. NOUGH unburdening my frustration with attitudes and By rejecting infallibility, I am not challenging the goodness, practices that bother me-on to those things that are ba- integrity, or prophetic calling of the Brethren. Surely one will sic to my being and thus motivate me to live life as I do. get a lot closer to heaven following directions from them than 1. I havefaith in God, the Godhead, and gratitudefor the atone- heeding the blathering of an alternative voice such as mine. ment ofJesus Christ. I believe that I have a Heavenly Father and They have a tremendous burden to carry in administering the Mother who love me unconditionally, who created me, and affairs of the Kingdom throughout the world, and all appear- who are constantly aware of my existence. I gratefully accept ances indicate they function in an efficient, effective manner. the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which I don't fully com- They merit and receive a constant interest in my prayers. prehend, but I rejoice that it is in place. I have sensed the in- However, I believe there have been occasions when divine fluence of the Holy Ghost on numerous occasions and inspiration was slow to get through to them. As it was in the appreciate that conduit for truth and light. days of the primitive Church when the Prophet Peter was slow 2. My relationship with my immediatefamily is the most mean- to get the message that the gospel of Jesus Christ was to be ingful segment of my earthly lije. My wife of thirty-nine years, made available to the gentiles, so in recent times it took an ex- Phyllis, and 1 have developed a relationship that accommo- traordinary effort by the Prophet Spencer to reverse a century dates our differences and allows us to grow together. We are of discrimination and put into practice the universal availabil- strikingly different in many ways, yet the total trust we have in ity of priesthood authority to men of all races. There have been each other and the unlimited concern we have for ohe another other infrequent instances when decisions were made and makes possible the warm intimate relationship we share. I can- policies implemented that appeared to conflict with basic not imagine existence without the assurance of her love for me. gospel principles and were later reversed. As for my children, we are still at work on how we can in- It would be no surprise to me if at some future time, the teract with and build each other. All have chosen paths in their Prophet Gordon, or Boyd, or Dallin, or whomever, were to un- lives that are different than those I have trod. Some of those al-

Peculiar People

Standardized Difference between BW Students and National Norms BYU STUDENTS ARE PRACTICAL, NOT THEORETICAL OR REFLEXIVE SCORES FROM THE OMNIBUS PERSONALITY Thlnking lntrovsn~n Inventory administered to BW students in Student Theonl~caIorisntMad Development courses reveal interesting differences between them and national norms. 1277 female and 1207 CompCxny male students were surveyed. These students may not be Autonomy representative of all BW students-they may be some- Rellg~ousOrientation what more undecided about their majors. Standardized

Personal lntsgrstion differences (the difference between BW students and national norms divided by the standard deviation) indicate Anxtety Lewl that BW students score lower on Thinking Introversion Altrusm (liking reflective thought and academic activities), Females ~ranlcal0~tk.k 0~~1~. Tl~eoreticalOrientation (preference for dealing with theo-

-1.5 -1 -0.5 o 0.5 I retical concerns and scientific methods), Complexity (ex- perimental and flexible orientation), and Autonomy (liberal, non-authoritarian thinking and a need for independence). BW students also had somewhat lower levels of anxiety In contrast, Bn] students had a stronger Religous Orientation (accepting of conventional religious beliefs and practices), greater Personal Integration (lower social alienation or emotional disturbance), a more Practical Outlook (interest in practical act~vitiesand value of material possessions and concrete accomplishments), and somewhat higher Altruism.

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 15 SUNSTONE

ternate routes have been easy for me to accept, but others have sider it as much my church as it was the Prophet Joseph's or is presented a direction and course that I consider neither appro- President Hinckley's or anyone else's. It has the power to ad- priate nor prudent. Notwithstanding these conflicts, it is a core minister holy ordinances, and it is the vehicle to do much belief of mine that I must extend every effort to maintain a good in the world. 1 have been amply rewarded for the modest healthy, growing relationship with each of my children, one in contribution I have made toward its development and progress which we can mutually contribute to each other's well being, by the insights I have received through it and the opportunities regardless of how we are currently living. my family have gained from it. 3. The association with good people is a continual source of 6. Because 1 am so committed to this "stone cut out of a moun- strength and renewal to me. In my daily working life, I have the tain," I am troubled when it is not all it can be or should be. As 1 privilege of providing services to people who are generally de- stated earlier, that happens occasionally However, I maintain a cent, who appreciate my efforts, and who enrich and con- faith that change will occur that will eventually right any tribute to my life. I have had marvelous business associates for wrongs that may exist, and I wait patiently for them, having almost forty years who have kept me challenged and growing faith from experience that change does come. intellectually I have a large cadre of friends from different -J. FREDERICK (TOBY)PINGREE eras-childhood, college, mission field, former living Tov Ten locations-who continue to pop up and re-energize me. Discussion groups, where ideas are freely exchanged and differences respected, add a valuable dimension to my life. SIGNS THAT MORMONS 4. I believe there is continuous revelationfrom the heavens. This provides divine direction to the Lord's church and to the world ARE TAKING OVER THE in general. But most important to me, it is the "still, small NEIGHBORHOOD voice" that assures me I'm loved, that communicates that someone shares my struggles, and that occasionally gives me HE FOLLOWING TOP TEN LIST, COMPOSED BY direction in my life. Ed Weir, recently appeared in The Door. The Door is a 5. I love the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I con- T faithful if irreverent Christian magazine, the name of A Psalm THE RAG MAN'S PRAYER We thank you first, 0 Lord, for body aching from its concrete bed, for eyes the new light stings from stupor; we're grateful, too, for scent, which from the vent of baking bread conceives an appetite, for sense which feels little clouds move like fish in the river's first-lit pools, for ears which hear the river waking stones; for skull's cap, inside which curls a tongue of praise, a dim, contorted map of home; for empty hands, balm we hold to heal our neighbor's emptiness, we give you thanks, though most for heart, which blessed with bleeding for our sisters' wounds, our brothers' bleeding, pours out from blood its wine, from crusts and bones its bushel baskets filled with loaves and fish.

PAGE 16 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE which alludes to Martin Luther's nailing his nintey-five theses Tw en ty Yea rs Ago to the door of the Wittenberg chapel. The magazine claims to be "still nailing it to the church." HOW well haie they "nailed" Mormonism? "A NARROW LINE"

10. You hear mothers yelling things like, "Jared, have you In 1976, BW English professor Edward A. Geary reviewed the lat- seen Micah, Ruth, David, or Naomi?" est Mormon periodical, SWSTONE,for the alumni magazine BW 9. Local coffee shop only serves decaffeinated, room tem- Today (Sept. 1976). Geary's insights pithily summarize the balanc- perature coffee. ing act SUNSTO TONE, then and now. 8. Neighborhood churches begin to look like little prisons. 7. Local bike shop only canies black mountain bikes. OW, WITH THE THIRD ISSUE JUST OFF THE press, 6. Jesus and Satan appear as estranged brothers on Geraldo. SUNSTONE'Scharacter and purpose are beginning to 5. Small shops begin to appear bearing signs which read, N come into focus. SUNSTONEcalls itself "A quarterly "TRACE YOUR LINEAGE, $10." journal of Mormon experience, scholarship, issues, and art." 4. Unusual number of maternity shops begin to appear. What it really is [is] a magazine, in the eighteenth-century sense and you have to drive into the city to buy condoms. of that word: a portable container for small but worthwhile 3. Little league football team called "Moroni's Marauders." items. SUNSTONEhas no axe to grind, no political or theologi- 2. Kids are talking about LDS instead of LSD. cal line to promote, no purpose except the rather general one of providing an outlet for the work of Mormon writers. The em- and the number one sign the Mormons are taking over. phasis in the second and third issues is clearly on variety There are reports of personal experiences. . . . There are poems and 1. Neighborhood jewelry store renamed "Pearls of Lesser stories. . . . There are continuing treatments of the arts. . . . Price." There are odds and ends of Mormon history and folklore, and essays, interviews, and articles on contemporary issues. . . . And there are some of the most incisive book reviews currently being published on books of particular interest to Mormons.

Mormon Media Image

A SIGN OF THE TIMES? Ifsex, drugs and rock and roll are signs ofour depr-aved culture in these last days, what kind ofa sign is it when two Mormon missionary-types advertise rock music on Salt hke area billboards? Could this be what Paul had in mind when he said Satan v~ouldappear as fan angel of light? One Utah advettising agency must have thought seitrefused to ntn the ad campaign, citing cult~~ralsensitivities. Then again, perhaps thefolhs at KBER (101.1 -FM), whofound another agency willing to post the billboards, just have a quirky scnse of humor

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 17 "SUNSTONE'Sstrength is in the quality and variety of the ed- afloat in a time when the cost of paper and printing and itors and writers it has attracted thus far. Its weakness, as I see postage is escalating at an alarming rate. 1 don't know it, is in what seems to be a conscious effort to avoid the pitfalls whether SUNSTONEwill make it, but it deserves to make it, of Dialogue. In the effort not to be too controversial lies the and it deserves the support of everyone who cares about danger of becoming too bland. Not that SUNSTONEis a bland Mormon art or literature or theater, or, indeed, Mormon life." publication on the whole, but the "issues" that it promises in its subtitle to treat have thus far been handled very carefully and non-controversially There seems to be a similar effort on the part of the editors to avoid being or seeming too intellectual or scholarly, which again exposes the journal to an oppo- WHAT'S IN A PEJORATIVE? site danger, that of superficiality "These dangers, and the further danger of Utah Valley ECENTLY AN AML-LIST SUBSCRIBER POSTED A provinciality, exist but do not yet seriously threaten the qual- request to other users of the Association for Mormon ity of SUNSTONE.Those who write for and edit an indepen- R Letters' computer discussion group for non-divisive dent journal aimed at a Mormon audience must walk a synonyms of "anti-Mormon." For years sensitive Mormon narrow line if they are to be successful: to publish a wider wordsmiths have labored to find alternatives to "non- range of material than can be found in the house organs of Mormon"; after all, no one wants to be defined by what they the Church or of BYLJ (or else there is no justification for the are not (Mormon) instead of by what they are (Catholic, existence of an independent journal) without publishing Protestant, "people of other faiths," etc.). But for people who things that are offensive to Church members or Church lead- spend their time speaking, pamphleteering, writing, witness- ers; to offer meat enough to satisfy serious readers while re- ing, and publishing to convince people that Mormonism is taining a sufficiently light offering to attract a more casual false-people who are, well, divisive-one could argue that audience (since the number of serious readers in "anti-Mormon" accurately defines them by what they are, not Mormondom is very small). To these challenges must be by what they are not. And some list-users agreed. Trped one added another, perhaps the most difficult of all: to keep a respondent: "Either you're for, or against. There is no middle small, non-commercial, non-subsidized publishing venture ground. . . . I'm all for being devisive [sic] as long as that

PAGE 18 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE

means I won't be spewed from the mouth of God at the last dysfunctional pseudo-Christians day" Another agreed, noting that "Christ had perfect love for friends of other faiths (FOOFS) those scribes and Pharisees he called 'hypocrites' and friends of opposing lifestyles (FOOLS) 'child[ren] of hell."' Yet another wrote, "We have enemies. patrons of opposing philosophies (POOPS) Why pretend otherwise?" acquaintances of negative theological interests (ANTIS) Nevertheless, the request for alternatives prompted many the Gentile Liberation Front nominations from Mormondom's elite men and women of let- CsOTMC (Critics of the Mormon Church) ters, although most contributors seemed more playful than objectivity-challenged Mormon commentators constructive. The lengthy list of suggested synonymns for and, "persons in straw hats who sit upon lawn chairs in the "anti-Mormon," not all of which would lessen division, in- full sun all the day long and distribute perversely nega- cluded: tive literature about the LDS church at the exits of park- skeptics challengers ing lots of LDS temple open houses, who are otherwise Gentiles the unconverted harmelsss . . ." Mormon-detractors contra-Mormons counter-Mormons post-Mormons After a week or so of give and take on the subject, the AML- anti-Christs unwashed heathens list moved on to discussing more weighty matters of Mormon Mormophobes ignurnt fools literature, such as reviews of current novels and how we can Nehors Tannerites cultivate Mormon Shakespeares. Concerning terms, it was the avatars of Satan 0 Benighted Ones Bard who noted, that a rose by any other name still smells as sweet. Supposedly, the same goes for anti-Mormons, too.

MORMON INDEX

Percentage of 1847 Mormon pioneers over the age 65 : 1 Percentage of 1995 U.S./Canadian Saints over the age 65 :9 Number of women called prophetesses in the Bible :7 Percentage of Mormon vs. U.S. men who say mamage is better than being single :75:53 Average ideal family size for LDS women vs. U.S. women :4.6:2.8 Percentage of LDS men vs. LDS women who wish to be free from parental responsibility :4.2: 11.3 Percentage of LDS men and LDS women who feel like a person of worth-on equal plane with others :93:93 Number of freshmen BW admits each year :5,600 Number of freshmen applicants BW denies each year : 1,000 Percentage of Mormon psychotherap~stswho "often" counsel patients to memorize scriptural passages as therapy : 41 Ranking of Utah among states with the most charitable citizens: 1 Approximate percentage of income Utahns contribute to charity (largely tithing) :3 Approximate percentage of income given to charity in the second-most-charitable state : 1.5 Standard hour for bugle to sound wake-up call in first pioneer company: 5 a.m. Shortest number of seconds Brigham Young took to recite the 600-word sealing ceremony : 108 Year kissing was eliminated at the end of proxy sealings : 1927 Highest Top-40 ranking achieved by Mormon Tabernacle Choir :13 Percentage of working U.S. Mormon women in professional or managerial fields :31 Percentage of working U.S. Mormon men in professional or managerial fields :33 Percentage of U.S. Mormons who favor the death penalty: 89 Percentage of U.S. Mormons who favor abortion if the mother's health is endangered :88

1,2 1997-1998 Church Alr~lannc(Dcst.r-ct Nnv\). 103, 3 Jay Parr): hny hlorns. ni~hformon Book olLists (Bookcraft), 101, 4,5,6,7 Tim B. Hcaton, Kristen L. Goodman. Thomas B. Holman, "In Scorch of a Pecllllar People. Arc hlormon Fam~l~esReally that Dlhrent!" in Contemporary Mormon~sm:Social Sc~encePerspectives (Ill~nots).95,98.99. 11 2: 8,9 Dzsrrrr Nclvs. Rl. 7 Jan 97: 10 P Scott Richards. R~chard\V Potts. "Splntual Inten.entions In Psychotherapy" In con t journal, vol 21. no 1-1995,45. 11,12,13 Gcor-gc. Apr 97. 30: 14 1997-98 Church r\lrnclnuc (Dt.srrrf NCIVS):15,16,17 Mormon Hier-nrchy: Extensions qf Power (Signature Books). 754. 819. 845: 18,19,20,21 "Social Characrenst~cs."In Eni\.cloped~anfX4ormon1sm (Macmillan Pul~lishlng).1374. 1377

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 19 SUNSTONE

The Mormon obsession with literalist interpretation and discourse has become a largely inward and unproductive commitment of intellectual and theologcal resources. If the Latter-day Saint message is to be heard and understood internationally, it is best conveyed in cross-cultural dialogue. At the heart of the complex LDS scriptural tradition is afresh Christian doctrine of dynamic development and transformation. BEYOND THE LITERALISTCONSTRAINT: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON MORMON SCRIPTURE AND RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATION

By Ian G. Barber

OF MISTAKES AND MEN: A YOUTHFUL ENCOUNTER be discussed. The advertisement enticed the reader with chal- Myfirst exposure to anti-Mormonism, disturbing as it was, did not lenges to prophetic authority such as Joseph Smith's. With all lead me to abandon the Church. Instead, I discovered the dangers the zeal of young activists and the firm intention to uphold the of subscribing to a completely literal view of scripture. truth, Mark and I attended. The meeting was disappointing. We had inferred that there REMEMBER VIVIDLY MY FIRST SERIOUS ENCOUNTER would be an explicit challenge to Joseph Smith's prophetic of- with the evangelical, anti-Mormon world view. It was fice. Instead, the pastor delivered a fundamentalist reading of I 1974, some months after my baptism as a young teenage biblical prophecy and authority The challenge to other "false convert, and well over a year since my first involvement with prophets" (such as Joseph Smith) was presented as an affirma- the Latter-day Saint community in Nelson, New Zealand. My tion of the ultimate and final prophetic authority of the Bible. I Mormon friend Mark and I were alerted by a newspaper ad- had been exposed to this argument while investigating the vertisement to a Sunday night meeting at the Parker's Road Church, and was little impressed or moved by its restatement. Church of Christ, where scriptural claims of prophecy were to What was of more moment to me was Pastor Bill's wonderful Texan drawl, which contrasted with accents of the mission- IAN G. BARBER teaches oceanic archaeology and culture change in aries from Utah and California. The realization was beginning the department of anthropologv at the University of Otago in to dawn that America was seriously into exporting religion! Dunedin, New Zealand. His diverse interests in the anthropology of At the conclusion of the meeting, Mark and I approached the past are indicated by two recent publications: "Mormon Women Pastor Bill, identified ourselves as Latter-day Saints, and sug- As 'Natural' Seers: An Enduring Legacy" (Women and Authority: gested to him that he might want to consider the prophetic Re-emerging Mormon Feminism, ed. Maxine Hanks, Signature claims of Joseph Smith a tad more seriously (Ah, the boldness Books, 1992, 167-84) and "Archaeology, Ethnography, and the of youth!) Pastor Bill was absolutely delighted to "debate" (his Record of Maori Cannibalism before 1815: A Critical Review" word) Joseph Smith and his claims with us, and ushered us (Journal of the Polynesian Society 101: 241-92). He is married into his office. And there, on the bookshelves of Pastor Bill's of- to Fiona Kirk, a fellow anthropologist turned academic librarian. fice, I espied a range of titles that were about to seriously un- settle and challenge my new world view. To our discussion of

PAGE 20 SEPTEMBER 1997 the Book of Mormon witnesses, Pastor Bill produced Jerald elatory "black holes" as the absence of any nomenclature for and Sandra Tanner's Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? to cast the Pharaohs of the Abraham and Joseph narratives, and more doubt upon the integrity of that witness. As I pored over the generally, plenty of evidence of human individuality, idiosyn- pages of this massive volume, I realized for the first time the crasy, and "contradiction" in both Hebrew and Greek scrip- complexity and sophistication of the better-researched, evan- tures. gelical anti-Mormon literature. (Until that time I had seen only This encounter did not cause me to abandon all faith. facile and poorly presented anti-Mormon tracts that could be Instead, I developed a new respect for the Bible as a complex easily dismissed.) I conceded to Pastor Bill that there were is- document of God's interface with imperfect human history sues here with which I was not familiar, and that I would look and cognition. This included an appreciation of scripture as carefully through his books to be able to discuss the arguments both record and metaphor of human striving for the divine, with more understanding. And so, laden with Fawn Brodie, rather than as religious icon or documentary history. Against the Tanners, and such specialist historical sources as the this appreciation, I began to feel that the conservative Braden-Kelley debate and facsimile editions of the Book of Protestant hermeneutic proceeded from an unrealistic expecta- Commandments and the Book of Mormon (as the reader will tion of the revelatory process and its consequent record. To discern, Pastor Bill was a serious consumer of the Mormon ex- me, this was no better demonstrated than in the derision by perience), I proceeded homeward to a challenging and trou- fundamentalist commentators of the caveat in the title page of bled read. the Book of Mormon: "If there are faults they are the mistakes Over the next few nights, the entire anti-Mormon pantheon of men." A book revealed by the gft and power of God, as the was unfolded to my view. There was Adam-God, Mother-God, argument went, should have no mistakes! However, I saw that Grandfather-God-indeed, all kinds of gods. There was blood this argument missed a crucial piece of logic. To be communi- atonement and Christ's limited atonement. There was Mount cated, the power of God had to become resident in an imper- Zion in America, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Mountain fect human agent, and therefore was subject to the existential Saints vs. Plains Saints, and many Mormon men mounting uncertainties of human choice. As the Book of Mormon itself multiple maidens. There were contradictory Mormon scrip- proclaimed, this agency remained a sovereign human matter, tures, contradictory angels, contradictory visions, and, in gen- and possession of, or access to, God's spirit promised no ab- eral, contradictory and unreliable historical records. There was solute assurance against mistake, contradiction, or even money diggng, bank fraud, political fraud, and financial se- quandary. This seemed evident from such incidents as Lehi's crecy There were no real Nephites, plenty of real (if clandes- apparent perceptual uncertainty as to whether or not he had tine) Danites, and a secret world government under the guise seen God (1 Ne. 1:8), or the faithful and spiritual Moroni of the Council of Fifty There was, in effect, so much violence, losing the plot to the point that he incorrectly censured illicit sex, graft, deceit and duplicity that one was left in awe Pahoran and threatened to come and stir up insurrections that such a corrupt bunch of religous sociopaths ever man- among his people (Alma 59, 60). aged to lie, cheat, and steal their way beyond upstate New I also became enamored of Joseph's instruction to Oliver York, let alone to Utah. Cowdery that God would manifest knowledge of ancient To a precocious sixteen-year-old convert, this was, to say scriptures through Oliver's "mind and "heart" (D&C 8:l-2), the least, unsettling stuff. However, to Pastor Bill's intense dis- further clarifying the role of human agency in revelation. Here, appointment, it did not lead me to abandon the Latter-day Oliver was commanded to do more than simply "ask; he had Saints. Two reasons may be cited. First, the warm and won- first to "study it out" in his mind, and then ask so that a derful, predominantly Maori Latter-day Saint community with burning feeling might confirm that a thought was "right," or a whom I worshipped in Nelson bore no resemblance to any of "stupor of thought" would cause him to "forget the thing the Mormon fiends implicated by the Tanners and others. An which is wrong." Hardly surprisingly, this 'translation' process equally compelling theoretical reason presented itself as well. came with no guarantee of consistency or ultimate success Initially, the assertion that Mormon scriptures and history were (DQC 9:l-12). Consequently, it made sense to me that the contradictory and unreliable struck me as the most persistent sometimes hesitant or seemingly incomplete unfolding of and troubling argument of the evangelical anti-Mormon litera- truth to Joseph through his subsequent study of the biblical ture. This seemed to be a highly damning allegation against a text should also be labeled (by Joseph) as a scriptural "transla- church claiming to be a conduit of new revelation and truth. tion." And I felt assured that, warts and all, Mormon history By contrast, the Bible was offered as a scripture with harmo- was no less an authentic religious history for all its humanity; nious doctrine and impeccable historical credentials. However, in fact, quite the reverse. as I turned to the Bible and experimented with the standards At essence, I realized, was a fundamental philosophical dif- of textual and historical criticism demanded by conservative ference between the Mormons and their fundamentalistlevan- Protestant interpreters for the Mormon canon, the claim of ab- gelical critics, a difference confirmed to me in concurrent solute Biblical historicity and consistency did not stack up. In reading in existentialism. If God is not all and absolute, and Genesis 1-1 1, I found scientific, archaeological, and historical human choice is a sovereign phenomenon, then inadequacies problems of the same (or greater) magnitude as those identi- in any human interpretation of the divine are not just allow- fied for the Book of Mormon. I also found such historical/rev- able; they are almost mandatory. I felt that the absolute, liter-

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 21 alist framework of interpretation that refused to allow error or scripture that transcends the literalist constraint, offering new inadequacies in any primary biblical representation diluted or means of validating and communicating the LDS tradition as rel- even denied human agency Such a world view encourages evant to universal concerns of spiritual experience. what I would now construe as a literalist discourse, where the historical form and limitations of the text become the primary THE BOOK OF MORMON focus and absolute authority In the most conservative expres- AND CROSS-CULTURAL SPIRITUALITY sion of this view, any deviation from the most literal under- At a comparative level, historical validity is unimportant; it is standing or telling of that form is suspect. In my new teenage valuable to compare living communities who retell similar stories awareness of this interpretation, I recall vividly that an existen- in a theological and ritual discourse. tial reading of the Mormon canon seemed fresh and emanci- pating by contrast. N the history of Mormon apologetics, perhaps the single My own skepticism of literalist discourse, forged in a most common defense of the Book of Mormon follows the teenage search for religious truth, has not abated in further in- I methodology characterized by anthropologists as the "di- tellectual and spiritual growth. However, while Mormon tradi- rect historical approach." In the Mormon interpretation, cul- tion offers a rich and liberating theological vein beyond the tural phenomena identified from linguistic studies, history, constraints of that discourse, I concede that the Mormon and archaeology are directly compared with similar forms in hermeneutic has also encouraged its own literalist imperatives. the Book of Mormon. The inference is then drawn of a histor- Indeed, the attraction of absolutist thinking1 and its concomi- ical correlation between the forms under comparison. This ap- tant literalist interpretation is such that it could hardly be oth- proach is characteristic of such famous Mormon apologists as erwise in a complex and eclectic religious movement. David B.H. Roberts, Sidney Sperry, Hugh Nibley, and many of the re- Wright has recently characterized such literalism in Mormon searchers and writers associated with the Foundation for scriptural interpretation as a "traditionalist mode" of dis- Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (F.A.R.M.s.). At worst, ~ourse.~As regular readers of this magazine hardly need to be the approach has sponsored some bizarre claims and drawn

1 GOD IS NOT ABSOLUTE, AND HUMAN CHOICE IS A SOVEREIGN PHENOMENON, THEN INADEQUACIES IN IF I ANY HUMAN INTERPRETATION OF THE DIVINE ARE I ALMOST MANDATORY. reminded, such discourse has fostered serious and sometimes ridicule upon the scriptural comparison. At best (as in some of bitter recent debate.3 In recent constructions of Church policy Nibley's writings), the Mormon approach has stimulated ex- concerning such matters as feminism and intellectual di~sent,~ citing perspectives and challenged contemporary Latter-day the literalist discourse also seems preeminent. Saint complacency. Whatever the merits of the various protagonists in these de- However, a non-historical variation on this comparative ap- bates, it saddens me that a religious tradition with such oppor- proach to the Book of Mormon may hold more promise as a tunity for creative and dynamic interpretation as Mormonism means of confirming the book's fundamental relevance to should be so publicly mired. The ongoing controversy over the cross-cultural religious experience. For want of a better term, historical validity of the Book of Mormon, for example, seems this variation may be described as ethno-phenomenological. strangely irrelevant to the experience of finding spirituality By this unwieldy term I refer to the shared cognitive experi- through the Latter-day Saint scriptural tradition or of communi- ence of the sacred story in discrete cultural traditions. In such cating that phenomenon to a wider audience. In my profes- an approach, accounts of ritual and religious experiences from sional experience, the evidentiary discourse of much contempo- the Book of Mormon would be compared across cultural di- rary scholarship on the Mormon canon and sacred history is of vides, elucidating theological qualities and religious relevance little more than minor ethnographic interest in the larger schol- of the sacred text to various communities of faith. This exercise arly world. Indeed, I have come to see literalist interpretation as has no necessary implication for direct historical connections inimical to some of the most interesting and readily communi- or ultimate cause and, as such, may incorporate data from a cable elements of the LDs scriptural tradition. Since there has wide range of religious, temporal, and cultural contexts. never been a greater technical capacity for communication in Here is one example toward such a cross-cultural compar- world history than now, I state this as a matter of concern. In ison. In 1963, anthropologist James Watson referred to a tradi- what follows, I briefly sketch one approach to the Mormon tional story from the Eastern New Guinea Highlands, appar-

PAGE 22 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE

ently recalling a volcanic eruption somewhere in the larger re- tern. . . . I suppose it is possible that the real events occurred gion of the western pacific5 Watson heard several accounts of with that duration and sequence, but I assume they did not."' this story among the Agarabi people and concluded that it was Watson notes that other tales from a number of different "general in the area." As summarized "in its major points," the Eastern Highlands peoples present "sequences involving three event told to Watson occurred "before the [arrival] of the white unresolved repetitions of the occurrence with a final episode, man." Since first reading this account as an anthropology un- typically after an appropriate step by one of the actors, fol- dergraduate, I have been impressed by the similarity of the lowing on the fo~rth."~From the Huli people of the Southern Agarabi story and the account of the three days of darkness Highlands region, Glasse also documents the phenomenon of preceding Christ's arrival among the Nephites of the Book of Bing, an event heralded by thunder, lightning, and tremors (cf. Mormon. To illustrate these similarities, I have set out the two 3 Ne. 8:19), after which "the sky darkens when it should be accounts in parallel columns (see table). m~rning."~In the Nephite account, the three days of darkness From the direct historical perspective, it is tempting to has an obvious parallel and precedent in Christ's sacrifice and compare the physical similarities between the two accounts, descent into the earth for three days, prior to a glorious resur- since, as indicated above, Watson argues that the Agarabi story rection heralding victory over death. The three days of dark- represents the details of an actual volcanic eruption. This liter- ness had even been anticipated in prophecy among the alist interpretation is followed by other scholars concerning re- Nephites as a sign that Christ would appear among the people lated and widespread Highland New Guinea traditions." (see 3 Ne. 8:3). However, I am particularly interested in comparing the ritual- In the Book of Mormon, the darkness is so complete that no ized religious elements of the Agarabi and Nephite accounts as torches or fires could be lit. This contrasts with the Agarabi ac- paired above. For example, Watson remarks of the Agarabi count, where the people lit torches to make their way out to story: "The three-days-of-darkness-with-resolution-on-the-their gardens, which were covered with "sand." Since the sand fourth I consider a cultural-specifically folkloristic-pat- suggests volcanic ash,1° the darkness of the Agarabi story may CROSS CULTURAL-SPIRITUALITY From the LDS perspective, the existence of similarly powerful accounts of destruction, ritual protection, and rebirth into a new world helps to confirm the universality and spiritual strength of the Book of Mormon nalmtive.

Agarabi account, Eastern New Guinea Highlands I Book of Mormon account qf Christ's visit to the Nephires 1 I (Watson 1963:152-53) I (3 Ne. 8-1 0) I The people of our village awakened to find that the day d~dnot [f~~llowingtempests, thundering, lightning, and the quaking lighten. Thinking at first that it was still night, they stayed by 1 and breaking of the earth] ~ehold,there was darkness upon their fires; but after a while they decided that 1t kvould not get the face of the land . . . thick darkness. . . . And there could be I light. They lighted torches in order to see. Wherever they went no light, because of the darkness, neither candles, neither outside, they lighted their way with the torches because the torches; ne~thercould there be fire kmdled. . . . And there was daytime that day was as dark as the night. , not any light seen . . . neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, for so great were the mlsts of darkness which were upon the face of the land. (8:19-22) They did not know what to make of the darkness and the) And there was great mourning and howling and weeplng ~ were afraid. . . . among all the people continually (8:23) I 1 The second mornlng it was just the same. It was stlll dark. It d~dlast for the space of three days that there was no l~ght seen. (8.23)

The third day was like the first two and now the people de- [a voice is heard upon the face of the land that is still covered cided they must do something to make it light again. They in darkness] 0 all ye that are spared because ye were more killed a white-skinned pig. [Watson remarks that "the killing r~ghteous. . . ye shall offer up unto me no more the sheddlng of pigs is reported on many other occasions of great omen . . of blood . . . for 1 will accept none of your sacr~ficesand your the slaughter of pigs and the sprinkling of pigblood is cons~d- burnt offerings And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a ered one of the most powerful magical safeguards a\.ailable "1 broken heart and a contrite spirit. (9:13, 19, 20) 1

The mornlng of the fourth day ~tgot light once more And ~t came to pass that thus d~dthe three days pass awl And ~t mas In rhe mornlng, and the darkness d~spersedfrom off the face of the land (10 9)

SEPTEMBER 1997 P.4GE 23 SUNSTONE

be identified with an event that is arguably as "historical" as it MORMONISM AND RELIGIOUS MEANING is rituaVrnythologica1 in nature. In comparison, the "thick The doctrine that men and women could share the powel; vapor of darkness" in the Nephite account may be read as a authority, and nature of divinity isJoseph Smith? most important mythological symbol of ultimate contrast to the light of Christ statement of afresh Christian theology. into which the people are delivered. In common, I infer from both the New Guinea and Nephite EYOND the comparative approach to understanding accounts that the ritual significance of the three days of dark- sketched above, I now address the identification and ness announces the event as something supernatural and ex- B communication of the unique in the Latter-day Saint traordinary, something from which only religious action can revelation. There is a substantial and as yet unrealized contri- provide release. It is clear from the sacrifice of the pig in the bution that the Mormon scriptural hermeneutic may make to Agarabi story that some level of supernatural expiation is re- Christian discourse beyond the literalist paradigm. As a quired, and the sacrifice is made unique and important by the number of Mormon scholars have gently reminded us for stipulation that the pig be white. Among the Huli of the some time now, the theological history of our tradition is not Southern Highlands, the Bingi legend (mana) entails "practical just theoretically revelatory12 That is, LDs doctrine represents a and ritual precautions for survival," while Bin8 is ultimately at- process rather than a single event, as anticipated by the Book tributed to the actions of the gods. Furthermore, Bingi is po- of Mormon itself. It is, I believe, of critical importance to un- tentially so dangerous that "if the mana is not faithfully camed derstand that this unfolding was not just confined to the seer. out it could end in devastation."" The Nephites who survive Indeed, "it is given unto many to know the mysteries of God," the destruction accompanying the three days of darkness are and to the receptive, "to know the mysteries of God until he "the more righteous part of the people . . . who received the know them inhfull" (Alma 12:9-10, emphasis added). The ex- prophets and stoned them not; and . . . who had not shed the pectation that the faithful would have personal revelations and blood of the saints" (3 Ne. 10:12). It is otherwise made clear in the ministration of angels as anticipated in the Book of the Nephite account that the more wicked part of the people Mormon (Moro. 7:30-32, 36-37; cf. Alma 13:22-26) began have been destroyed (3 Ne. 9), while before the darkness lifts, to be fulfilled in such events as the visit of the angel to the Christ invites the more righteous who survive to "now return three witnesses of the Book of Mormon and the angelic minis- unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may trations reported during the dedication of the Kirtland Temple heal you" (3 Ne. 9:13). in 1836. It is almost inconceivable that the people of the New Furthermore, the Book of Mormon also anticipated divine Guinea Highlands could have been influenced by the Book of theophanies to the faithful, a promise that is contingent upon Mormon account in the telling of these traditions. Any sugges- the exercise of faith (see Ether 3:19-26,4:7). Such experiences tion that Joseph Smith knew of these or similar New Guinea also confirmed that, in spite of the distance between deity and accounts is also completely impossible. Indeed, the New the fallen people of the earth, God remained approachable as Guinea traditions apparently recollect volcanic events that "a man." Thus Nephi saw the physical form of the spirit of the took place in the later nineteenth century, but still before Lord "in the form of a man . . . [who] spake unto me as a man European contact. Parenthetically, one might note that if any- speaketh with another" (1 Ne. 11:11), while the brother of thing like the New Guinea accounts had appeared in Ethan Jared saw "the finger of the Lord . . . as the finger of a man, like Smith's View of the Hebrews, those inclined to a nineteenth-cen- unto flesh and blood (Ether 3:6; see also 1 Ne. 1:8, Alma tury explanation of the Book of Mormon would almost cer- 36:22). To the brother of Jared, Jesus Christ then revealed him- tainly have argued a narrative connection. This observation self as "the Father and the Son" in a "body" of spirit, a body underlines the need for a more cautious approach to textual after which "man" was created, and in which form Christ and cultural similarities, whether one is defending or criti- would yet appear on earth (Ether 3:14-8). In the developing cizing the Book of Mormon as history. However, at a compara- doctrine of the Mormon priesthood, the personal ministration tive conceptual level, the issue of historical validity is not im- of the Father and the Son was thereafter promised to the portant. What is valuable is the comparison of living faithful, with the eventual clarification that the Father and Son communities who preserve and retell similar traditions in a were physical, corporeal beings (see DQC 130:22). Against theological and ritual discourse, whether in the oral telling of Robert Hullinger's interpretation,13 I suggest that in the initial the New Guinea story, or the textuavdidactic replication of the presentation and further development of the doctrine of con- Book of Mormon account among the Latter-day Saints. From tinuing revelation, Joseph Smith was not primarily concerned the LDS perspective, the existence of similarly powerful ac- to "prove" (against deism) God's unchangeable nature. Of counts of destruction, ritual protection, and rebirth into a new greater personal concem to the Prophet was the early affirma- world helps to confirm the universality and spiritual strength tion of God's proximity and accessibility to "his" created chil- of the Book of Mormon narrative. dren. This concem was given complete expression in the Nauvoo doctrine that all of humanity are spiritual sons and daughters of heavenly parents, "the Eternal Father and other."'^ The unfolding revelation of intimacy between the divine

PAGE 24 SEPTEMBER 1997 and the human was given its ultimate expression in the doc- Mormonism, the doctrine is Joseph Smith's most important trine that those who shared the responsibilities of the priest- statement of a fresh Christian theology. Its Christianity is con- hood of Christ could share his divinity as well. It is difficult to firmed in the guiding precedent of Jesus' own development sketch the precise generation of this teaching in early Mormon (see Luke 2:40, 52; cf. DQC 93: 12-17) and the centrality ac- thought.15 Certainly the Book of Mormon confirmed God's es- corded his grace as the process applies to us. As a unitary state- sential omniscience and hence distance from humanity in such ment, the unfolding of a personal divinity combines the phrases as King Benjamin's that God has "all wisdom" and that Prophet's early doctrine of personal and developmental revela- "man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can tion with the similarly early perspective that God wishes to im- comprehend (Mosiah 4:9), or Alma's about God's "foreknowl- part so much of the divine nature to the faithful as to elevate edge of all things" (Alma 13:7).Yet it is also interesting to con- the latter to a shared deity It demonstrates the ultimate "consider the account of the brother of Jared, who was allowed to descension of God (1 Ne. 1 1:16; see also Mosiah 4:5, 11) to a understand God's full purpose in the creation of the world "lost and fallen people" (Alma 12:22): Christ has come to min- through faith. In this instance, one learns that the Lord had ister and reveal himself, withholding nothing from the faithful promised the brother of Jared "that if he would believe in him (Ether 3:25-26). It thus becomes a uniquely powerful theolog- he would show him all things . . . therefore the Lord could not ical statement of the depth, inclusiveness, and selflessness of withhold anything from him" (Ether 4:26). One may also use- the grace of Christ. The LDS doctrine may also be seen in dia- fully consider Alma's teachings that Adam and Eve had be- logue with such New Testament teachings as those of Paul, for come as "Gods, knowing good from evil, placing themselves in whom the "children of God" (as reborn and justified) were, "if a state to act . . . to do evil or to do good (Alma 12:31), and children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" that the faithful would eventually be given to know "the mys- (Rom. 8:16-17, emphasis added; see also Gal. 4:7 and the teries of God . . . in full" (Alma 12:10). promise of 2 Pet. 1:4 that "ye might be partakers of the divine This promised sharing of divine omniscience was held out nature"). The radical challenge of this LDS doctrine to or- as the end of the process of personal revelation and sanctifica- thodox perspectives is even suggested by conservative hierar- I ITS STRESS UPON HUMAN UNFOLDMENT INTO MALE- FEMALE DIVINITY, GRACE IS FAR BETTER PLACED TO WITH I MEET THE CHALLENGE OF NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS I THAN "TRADITIONALIST" DISCOURSE.

tion. For men, at least, this doctrine was further underlined in chical responses within the contemporary LDS church itself, Joseph Smith's revelation of the degrees of glory, where or- where discussion of women's spiritual empowerment and, ulti- dained Melchizedek priesthood holders who overcome the mately, female divinity has been discouraged and curtailed.'* world are "given all things," becoming "priests and lungs, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory . . . wherefore . . . CONCLUSION they are gods, even the sons of Godn (DQC 76:55-58). In the A renewed emphasis on the unique Mormon doctrine of divine Nauvoo temple ceremony and revelation, the promise of di- potential may cultivate a new appreciationfor Mormonism among vinity was explicitly confirmed for women, who would be- the religions of the world. come queens and priestesses alongside male kings and priests.'6 In this teaching, exalted men and women joined by HE obsession with literalist interpretation and dis- the Lord "shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and course, which I concede is firmly rooted in LDS history, powers, dominions, all heights and depths," becoming "gods T has become a largely inward and unproductive com- . . . above all, because all things are subject unto them . . . be- mitment of Mormon intellectual and theological resources. If cause they have all power" (DQC 132:18-21). In spite of his- the Latter-day Saint message is to be heard and understood in- torical complexities and even contradictions," this Nauvoo ternationally as the Prophet Joseph intended, it must look be- revelation offered an inclusive doctrinal development: that yond evidentiary debate and an inflexible literalist framework. men and women could share the power, authority, and nature The complexity and inspiration of the Mormon canon is best of divinity conveyed and appreciated in cross-cultural dialogue, of which If the evangelical anti-Mormon media are any guide, this a possible example has been sketched above. Furthermore, at radical teaching may well offer the greatest doctrinal offense to the heart of the complex LDS scriptural tradition is a fresh orthodox Christianity However, as the most unitary essence of Christian doctrine of dynamic development and transforma-

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 25 tion. With its stress upon human unfoldment into male-female divinity through the grace of Christ, this doctrine is far better placed to meet the challenge of new social movements and concerns, including feminist perspectives, than policy-precedent or "traditionalist" modes of discourse. Indeed, a heightened awareness and recognition of this doctrine within the contemporary Church may have extraordinary potential to resolve our social and intellectual dissent. And, ultimately, in the possibilities for its wider communication, I sense an unrealized potential for an appreciation of the Latter-day Saint perspective among world religious and philosophical traditions.19 O NOTES 1. See Sterling M. McMurrin, "Some Distinguishing Characteristics of SUBWAY MANIA Mormon Philosophy," SUNSTONE16:4 (March 19931, 35-46. A teenage boy dressed as a mo- 2. David P Wright, "Historical Criticism: A Necessary Element in the Search for Religious Truth," SUNSTONE16:3 (Sept. 1992),28-38. torman and drove the A train for 3. See Brent L. Metcalfe, ed., New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: several hours. Caught because he Explorations in Critical Methodology (Salt Lake City: Signature Books. 1993); Review slightly exceeded the speed limit, ofBooks on the Book of Mormon 6.1 (1994); Salt Lake City Messenger. June 1994,86; and "EA.R.M.S./Signature Feud Continues with Attack on Metcalfe," SUNSTONE he faces a possible prison sen- 17:l Oune 1994), 78-79. tence andfine. 4. See "Six Intellectuals Disciplined for Apostasy," SUNSTONE16:6 (Nov. 1993). 65-73. In secret, he was in love 5. James B. Watson, "Krakatoa's Echo!" Journal of the Polynesian Society 72 with the roar and screech of wheels, (1963): 152-55. 6. See Robert M. Glasse, "Bingi at Tari," Journal of the Polynesian Society 72 sparks that danced like Roman candles, (1963): 270-71; and R. J. Blong, "The Krakatoa Myth and the New Guinea the huge eye of the front car, Highlands."Journal of the Polynesian Society 84 (1975): 213-17. 7. Watson, 153. its rumbling music: 8. Watson, 153. symphonies more savagely beautiful 9. Glasse, 271. 10. Watson, 152, 154-55. than anything by Shostakovich, 11. Glasse, 271. whose name meant nothing to him. 12. See Thomas G. Alexander, "The Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine: From Joseph Smith to Progressive Theology,"SuNSTONE 5:4 (July 19801, 2433; Neighbors agreed also in SUNSTONE10:5 (May 19851,s-18; and in Line upon Line, ed. Gary James Bergera (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), 53-66. See also James B. Allen, he was a quiet boy, "Line upon Line," Ensign, July 1979, 32-39. holding doors open 13. Robert N. Hullinger. Mormon Answer to Skepticism: WhyJoseph Smith Wrote the Book of Mormon (St. Louis, Mo.: Clayton Publishing House, 1980). 120-39. for women with groceries, 14. Linda P Wilcox, "The Mormon Concept of a Mother in Heaven," helping his mother SUNSTONE5:5 (Sept.-Oct. 1980), 9-15; also in Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in with laundry. Historical and Cultural Perspective, ed. Maureen Ursenbach Beecher and Lavina Fielding Anderson (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois F'ress. 19871, But ask him who built 6477; and in Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism, ed. Maxine the New York subway, Hanks (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992),4-6. 15. See Alexander, "Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine." the Metro, the Underground, 16. D. Michael Quinn, "Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood since and he'd whiplash the answer, 1843," in Women and Authority. 365-409. 17. An analysis of the seemingly contradictory strains of this doctrine in the the same for track gauges, scriptural context of D&c 132 (on which, see Melodie Moench Charles, the average time for every run "Precedents for Mormon Women from Scripture," Sisters in Spirit, 37-63) is well beyond the scope or intent of this essay However, given the historical abandon- on every line, the distance ment of the practice of polygyny by the ws church and the reality of the from terminus to terminus. late-twentieth-century feminist revolution, a focus on the potentially egalitarian aspect of D&c 132 makes good theological sense, at least in 1995. The motorman's booth 18. Martha Pierce, "Personal Discourse on God the Mother," in Women and Authority, 247-56; Wilcox, "The Mormon Concept of a Mother in Heaven," 11-13; was a throne more ornate and "Six Intellectuals Disciplined for Apostasy." SUNSTONE 166(Nov. 1993). 65-73. than an oriental despot's. 19. See McMumn, "Some D~stinguishing Characteristics of Mormon Philosophy," 44. See also John L. Brooke, The Refiner's Fire: The Mahing of Mormon No one would've known Cosmology, 1644-1844 (Cambridge: Cambndge University Press. 1994). on if the throttle hadn't taunted, Mormonism's prospects as a "new [religious] departure" (304). and especially on the possibilities for a "transforming renewal" based on a "creative reinterpretation" "More speed, more speed!" of the "formative" Mormon encounter with "hermetic purities" (305, and larger discussion, 301-05). -ROBERT COOPERMAN

PAGE 26 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE

Closely based on the scriptural story of Abraham and Isaac, Altars is an up-close looh at the concept of sacrifice, both in the literal, Old Testament sense and the day-to-day gzving up of one? self as a parent orfclmily member

A ONE-ACT PLAY

By J Scott Bronson

READING OF THIS PLAY WAS PRESENTED AT the COSTUMES 1994 Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City with the following cast: These should definitely not be flowing robes and sandals, the type of thing you would normally associate with a biblical period. I would Father Ivan Crosland prefer something nondescript-timeless if you will-like long Mother Trish Reading sleeves and no collar for the shirts, no pockets or zippers or buttons Son Dave Morgan on the pants. Soft (not leather) high-top boots. That's for the men. Mother should wear the same kind of thing only much more CHARACTERS feminine. (TWOmen, one woman)

The Father Very old, but looking much younger (Lights up. Pause. The SON enters carlying a bundle ofsticks upon his The Son Around thirty back. He drops the bundle and sits on one of the stones to catch his breath. The Mother Very old, and still very beautiful Soon the FATHER enters wearing the knije in a leather sheath and carrying the vessel which contains thefire. He sits opposite the SON to SETTING catch his breath as well. Pause.)

The Place The top of a mountain FATHER: I won't be able to make a climb like that too many more The Time The past times. SON: As many times as you need to. SET FATHER: I pray it is never again. (Pause.) SON: How is the fire? The play will best be served on an arena or thrust stage, the smaller FATHER: Burning still. I almost lost it a short way down the path the better. Intimacy is vital. Several blocks of irregular geometric when I slipped. It fell in the dirt. shapes should be placed in apparent randomness to represent stones SON: Fortunately there is no wind here to contend with it. Everything is black except for the gleaming silver of the knife's blade, FATHER: Yes. Fortunate, (Pause.) and the hands and heads of the actors. SON: Shall we begin? FATHER: No. Not yet. Rest. (Pause.) SON: Father? J. SCOTTBRONSON is a writer and actor from San Diego now FATHER: Yes? living in Orem, Utah, with his wije and four children. Altars tvns a SON: What will the sacrifice be? You haven't told me yet. winner in the 1994 Mormon One-Act Play Contest. All rights FATHER. I said- resewed. Permissionfor performances of any kind can be obtained by SON: You said that the Lord would provide. contacting the author at 1482 S. 760 E., Orem, Utah 84058. FATHER: Yes.

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 27 SON: There's nothing here- FATHER: What did I tell you? (Pause.) What? FATHER: We are here. SON: That I should bring . . . the choicest lamb. SON:-to sacrifice. FATHER: Correct. FATHER: Not yet. SON: But, he's my favorite, Father. (Pause.) SON: When? FATHER: He's my favorite too. FATHER: Patience. The Lord will provide. SON: Then- (Pause. The SON sits by the FATHER) FATHER: Bring him. (The SON leaves the light. The FATHER sighs.) Why SON: Father, are you that tired? did I choose to be a father? (The SON returns. Pause.) Good. Let FATHER: What? me hold him. (The SON holds his lamb, unmoving.) Son. (Pause.) I SON: You look . . . defeated. won't hurt him. (Finally the SON gives his lamb up.) -Nowplace FATHER: It was a long walk for this old body some wood on the altar. (The SON pushes a stone into the light and SON: And for this young body places afew sticks upon it, then stands back and stares at the altar FATHER: It's a healthier body The FATHER offers the lamb to the SON.) Here. (The SON holds the SON: It serves me. lambfor awhile. The FATHER offers the knife to the SON who turns FATHER: Good. (Pause.) May it serve you for . . . for-. from it and places the lamb upon the altar Pause.) SON: What is it? SON: He is silent, Father. FATHER: I am tired. More than I thought. FATHER: Yes. SON: Rest then. I will build the altar. SON: He does not fight. FATHER: Wait. It will wait. Sit with me. FATHER: He trusts you. Hold him like this. (The FATHER helps the SON: I'd prefer to finish this. I'm hungry. SON get a good grip on the lamb. The SON holds it downfor some FATHER: (Laughing.) You're supposed to rejoice in fasting. time then holds his hand outfor the knife. The FATHER places the knife SON: Well, normally I do. in his hand,) Cut here. FATHER: I know. So rejoice with me for awhile. (Pause. The SON cuts then immediately drops the knife and cries SON: Yes, Father. out staring at his hand in horror) FATHER: Don't be so sullen. SON: Oh, Father! Look! (He looks down at the lamb and cries out again. SON: Yes, Father. He backs awayfrom the altar Holding the wrist of his blood-soaked FATHER: That's my cheerful boy (Pause.) Besides, you never liked hand he appeals to the FATHER)Father, it's so hot. Oh, father, it building altars. bums me! Take it off! Please take it off. I hurt him! I hurt him! SON: It's hard work. Oh, why did I hurt him? (The FATHER is holding the SON now.) FATHER: But that's not why you don't like it. Why? Why? Why? It's his blood-he's bleeding-I made him SON: No, I suppose it's not. bleed-I made him bleed. Take it off-wash it off! FATHER: Does it still embarrass you? FATHER: (Holding the SON, overlapping.) Stop now. Hush. Hush. No. SON: Well . . . yes, but-. (Pause.) No more. No more. That's it. Quiet now. Yes. Now Now-, look FATHER: But? at this. Look. See this? This hand too has spilled blood. Has been SON: It's not pride. bathed in blood. But it washes off. It does wash off. Do you FATHER: How do you mean? understand? Yes? Now go. Wash your hand. SON: I mean . . . It doesn't matter to me that everyone knows I was SON: Yes, Father. afraid of the blood. (The SON leaves.) FATHER: I think every child is afraid the first time he spills the blood FATHER: Oh, why did I want to be a father? of the lamb. (Light change. Pause.) SON: I don't know why it embarrasses me, but, sometimes, after all SON: I slept that night with my hand buried in the sand. these years, I still . . . I pity that little lamb. FATHER: I remember. FATHER: Oh, that shouldn't embarrass you. You should pity the SON: Now that I think about it though, it's not the lamb I pity at all. lamb. It's myself. And that's wrong. SON: Yes, I suppose I should. FATHER: I think you pity the lamb as well. That's not so wrong. (Pause. Light change. The SON is now in darkness while the (Pause.) FATHER is isolated in a small area of light. A young male voice SON: Well, enough about my childish past. Let's build an altar. echoes.) FATHER: You build, I'll watch. VOICE: I'm ready, Father. SON: Of course. FATHER: What? FATHER: Of course. (Pause.) VOICE: I'm ready. SON: Are you really just going to watch? FATHER: (Playing a part.) Oh, are you? FATHER: I'll supervise from over here. VOICE: Yes. SON: All right. FATHER: Bring the wood over here. (The SON drags the bundle center FATHER: That stone will start a good foundation. The light expands to cover the action.) That's good right there. Have SON: Thank you. I thought so too. you brought the lamb? FATHER: That stone over there looks like it will fit well right here. SON: Yes, Father. Here. SON: Thank you. (The SON drags a [pantomimed] lamb into the light and the (The SON picks up the indicated stone and brings it center to the FATHER inspects it.) foundation stone.) FATHER: This is the runt, isn't it? (Pause.) Well? FATHER: You are still young and strong. SON: Yes, but- SON: You're not so frail yourself. (Pawe.)

PAGE 28 SEPTEMBER 1997 Countless times I have seen your blood pour out upon the stone and the sand. Countless times have I wished that I were already dead so that your soul might have passed through this day in the light of life rather than the shadow of death. But God has willed otherwise.

FATHER:I'm proud of you. I've always been proud of you, you know SON: Is something going to happen-? that. FATHER: Not-. (Pawe.) Not to your mother. (Pause.) The sacrifice SON: Yes. . . . today-. (Pause.) The lamb for the altar . . . is . . . (Pawe.) It FATHER: It was the greatest day of my life when you were born. is you, my son. (Pause.) SON: It was the greatest day of my life too. Though I imagne if I SON: I thought-. (Pause.) Why, Father? ever have a son of my own my outlook might change. FATHER: I- (Pause.) If the lord should require even all that we have FATHER: If? . . . then we must give it. (Pause.) You are all that I have. (Pause.) SON: Nothing is certain. (Pawe.) SON: And the Lord has required it. FATHER: No, you're right, nothing is certain. Your mother certainly FATHER: Yes. believed she'd never have a son, and yet, here you are. SON: Then we m-. (Pawe.) We must . . . do . . . as the Lord SON: Here I am. (Pawe.) requires. FATHER: I'm not sure your mother fully understood that she was FATHER: Yes. actually going to have a son. She'd waited so many years, and SON: Oh, God. was long past her birthing age. It truly was a miracle. An answer FATHER: Son- to so many desperate prayers. (Pause.) She loves you more than SON: You did not tell Mother. she loves anything else in this life. FATHER: No. Oh no. She would not have let you leave. SON: I love her. SON: I wish I hadn't. FATHER: I know you do. And that5 more important than any FATHER: It is Go& will. feelings you have for me. SON: But why? Why does he will this? SON: I love you too, Father. (Pause.) FATHER: I don't know. (Pawe.) FATHER: I know. But your mother . . . is more important. SON: It seems . . . capricious. I'm sorry. SON: Yes, Sir. (Pause.) FATHER: I understand. FATHER: 1'11 help you. @he FATHER struggles to lift another stone. The SON: Do you? How? How is it you're able to understand how I feel? SON humes to help him. Together they bring the stone center andfit it (Pawe.) Will Mother understand when you return with nothing to the altar) Thank you, Son. more than ashes and my blood on your hands and on your SON: You're welcome. (Pawe.) garments? FATHER: I need to rest. FATHER: Your mother-. Your mother's heart will break. As mine SON: Are you all right? has done a thousand times already Countless times since we left FATHER: (As he sits.) No. your mother I have watched myself draw this knife across your SON: What is it? throat. Countless times I have seen your blood pour out upon FATHER: Your mother- the stone and the sand and felt it, hot and sticky, upon this hand. SON: What? Countless times have I died when I killed you. Countless times FATHER: She will-, she won't . . . have I wished that I were already dead so that your soul might SON: What, Father? Please-. have passed through this day in the light of life rather than the FATHER: God has required . . . of me . . . of you . . . a most difficult shadow of death. (Pause.) But God has willed otherwise. (Pawe.) thing. SON: Your devotion is greater than mine, I fear. SON: Is Mother all right? FATHER: Not likely Already I have held in my heart thoughts even FATHER: Yes. For now. your brother would deem unworthy

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 29 SON: They must be evil thoughts indeed. FATHER: By helping me build an altar. (Pause.) FATHER: Thoughts that should have rent the veil between me and SON: I don't like building altars. the adversary and cast me into his midst. FATHER: I know that. SON: How can this be, Father? How can I believe that this is SON: I just want you to know that. necessary? (Pause.) Do you believe it? Or is this just a test? FATHER: Thank you. (Pause.) FATHER: I believe it, and it is a test. That must be won. By SON: If we stayed in one place and stopped moving around we performing the deed. wouldn't have to do this so often. SON: Will you force me if I refuse? FATHER: You're right. But this is difficult land. We must go to where FATHER: No. we can survive. And so we must move. And we must build an SON: I must go like the lamb, silent and trusting. altar wherever we go. FATHER: Yes. SON: I suppose if I have to- SON: Except that I know what the knife will do. FATHER: No. You don't have to. FATHER: Yes. (Pause.) SON: I don't? SON: I am not ready. FATHER: Not at all. (Pawe.) But I will be happy to receive your FATHER: Nor am I. (Pause.) assistance if you are willing to give it. (Pause.) SON: I will finish building the altar. SON: I think I should be willing.

(Light change. All is dark exceptfor a pool of light around the FATHER: Are you willing?- altar The FATHER and the SON are both out of the light. The FATHER5 SON: If I must- voice echoes out of the darkness.) FATHER: No. FATHER'S VOICE: Hurry, Son. SON: What? (Pause.) YOUNG VOICE: What? FATHER: God has made a promise to me that through me a nation FATHER'S VOICE: I said, hurry. would be born. That means that through you a nation will be YOUNG VOICE: I'm busy, Father. born. As a patriarch you must learn to serve. I know you are still FATHER'S VOICE: Busy? young, perhaps too young to grasp this, but you must learn to YOUNG VOICE: Yes. serve willingly, give freely, begrudging nothing of those you FATHER: (Stepping into the light.) Too busy to help your father? serve. (Pause.) Would you like to help me? (Pause.) YOUNG VOICE: Yes. SON: Yes. FATHER: Come out here, Son. (Pawe.) Now. FATHER: Thank you. SON: (Stepping into the light.) Yes, Father? (Light change as the SON moves to pick up a stone and begin FATHER: I need your help. building. He works in silencefor some time while the FATHER watches. SON: Is there no one else? Occasionally they share a look. Mostly, howevel; they watch each other FATHER: It is time to build the altar. I want you to help me. while the other is not looking. Finally:) SON: I thought- SON: Has God told you if yo; will have another son? (Pawe.) FATHER: Your brother is hunting. FATHER: No. SON: Why? SON: No, you're not, or no, he hasn't? FATHER: He thought we needed more meat. FATHER: He has said nothing about it. SON: We have plenty SON: Then we're proceeding blindly? FATHER: I know. (Pawe.) FATHER: What do you mean? SON: He wanted out of building the altar. SON: How will you father a nation without a son? Or will it be FATHER: More than likely He doesn't like building altars any more through my brother after all? than you do. FATHER: I don't know. I had thought-1 had hoped-I've always SON: You let him go? believed that it would be through you. FATHER: I did. SON: Isn't that what he promised? SON: Why? FATHER: I've always assimed that. Perhaps I was wrong. FATHER: Because I knew that you were still here. (Pawe.) I hoped SON: But you've kept your part of the covenant. You removed the that you would help me. foreskin of every male of your household, including yourself, and SON: You expect a lot of me. me when I was eight days old. You have fulfilled your part. How FATHER: Yes, I do. will he fulfill his? SON: Why? FATHER: He satisfied one impossible demand by giving me you. He FATHER: Father's always expect a lot of their sons. can satisfy another. SON: But you expect more of me than you do of him. SON: Mother was already long past birthing age when I was born FATHER: Yes. and it's been more than thirty years since then. How can her SON: Why? body accommodate? FATHER: I want you to be better than your brother. FATHER: You know the answer to that. SON: Why? SON: Yes. The Lord will provide. (Pawe.) Oh, Father, please don't FATHER: You are my son. make me do this. SON: My brother is not your son? FATHER: I won't. But it must be done. (Pawe.) FATHER: He is not your mother's son. SON: I know. (Pawe.) Yes, I know. (Pause.) I have known from the SON: Doesn't that already make me better than him? moment you announced that we were taking a journey how this FATHER: It makes you my birthright son. You have to earn "better." journey would end. SON: How? FATHER: How could you have known? I gave nothing away Even

PAGE 30 SEPTEMBER 1997 Why would a true god require that a man kill his own son? And here's a paradox for you. Is it true because God has required it, or has God required it because it is true?

your mother did not suspect, and she knows me better than I altar. (Pause.) God must have been listening. know myself. I know I was able to hide it from her, for if she had FATHER: Or your brother told him. known we never would have gotten away How did you know? SON: He doesn't often speak to the Lord as far as I know. Though he SON: I begged the issue. I boasted. (Pause.) I was swollen with pride may have in this case. (Pause.) Father, help me. and the Lord took me at my word. (The FATHERgoes to the SON who is kneeling.The SONS embraces FATHER: What are you talking about? the FATHER about the knees. The FATHER holds the SON'S head in his SON: My brother was speaking highly of himself- hands.) FATHER: Your brother often speaks highly of himself. FA~ER:I know, child. I'm sorry. (Pause.) I love you. You will-. SON: Well, occasionally it gets to be too much for me. (Pause.) The Lord will-. (Pause.) I-. (Pause.) I can't-. (Pause.) FATHER: Me too. I can't . . . believe . . . the Lord wants me to do this. I mean-. SON: Then you can understand what a temptation it is to challenge (Pause.) his pride. SON: Why, Father? FATHER: Yes. I can understand. (Pawe.) What was he puffed up FATHER: Why? Why would a true god require that a man kill his about this time? own son? SON: His circumcision. (Pause.) SON: But he has required it, hasn't he? FATHER: Is it better than yours? FATHER: Yes. And here's a paradox for you. Is it true because God SON: If you ask my brother, yes. has required it, or has God required it because it is true? FATHER: How is that? SON: I don't know. SON: I was but eight days old, a mere infant when my foreskin was FATHER: Neither do I. But it is the question that has haunted me- removed. I don't remember the pain. tortured me-for three days. since the moment we left your FATHER: Ah. And I assume he told you that he bore the pain as a mother standing there, in front of her tent, smiling . . . confident man, not like a bawling child? of your return. (Pause.) Your mother believes she will see you SON: Of course. again. FATHER: Of course. The truth is that he was only thirteen years of SON: She will. age at the time and although he was able to cany himself as a FATHER: In this life! (Pause.) If I can not take you back to her, as you man-on most occasions-on this particular occasion he are now, alive-full of warm blood and . . . passions-how can I comported himself more like a child than a man. I would not say return to her at all? How? (Pause.) that is necessarily shameful, however, for circumcision is indeed SON: But how can we disobey God? a painful thing to endure and I believe I may have shed a tear or FATHER: Like that! In an instant. We can pick up the wood, we two myself over the matter. (Pause. The FATHER smiles.) As I can pick up the fire, and we can walk back down the side of this remember it your brother held his piss all day trylng to avoid the mountain, and I can take you to your mother's tent and . . . pain he thought releasing it would bring. We did not tell him and . . . that it was not painful. And as it turned out, he could not hold it SON: God won't allow that. all night. Many of the servants laughed. (Pause.) I laughed. FATHER: Oh yes, He will. He will allow us to do anything we choose (They laugh. A little. Pawe.) to do. He allowed one man to kill his brother in cold blood SON: I wish I had known that before I boasted of my own capacity simply because of jealousy. Because, you see, the flesh and blood to bear pain. (Pause.) I said to him that if God should require it, I of man is not as important as the spirit of man- would willingly lay down my life, as a sacrifice, upon a burning SON: Which is why we must do this.

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 31 SUNSTONE

FATHER: True. You're . . . true. (Pause.) image of his fears. (Pause.) SON: Father, I don't want to die. (Pause.) But I will. 1took my father's axe into the courtyard of the voiceless gods FATHER: Oh, dymg's easy You don't need strength to die. You need and smashed and hacked to bits all of them that would not strength to live. You need even more strength to kill . . . your answer me. That would not accept my offering. I killed them. own son. (Pause.) And there was no blood. How can a true god not bleed when SON: If the Lord has required it then will he not strengthen you for you kill it? (Pause.) it? I left one of them standing. The greatest of all my father's FATHER: Yes. Of course. If I ask him. passionless gods to hold the axe in it's stone hands. I meant it to SON: Then do it. take the blame for all the carnage. I told my father that his great FATHER: I don't want to. stone god had destroyed the others because they desired the SON: Father- sacrifice over him. They all sought to receive what should have FATHER: Listen, Son. Many of God's commandments are easy to been his so he killed them. Somehow my father knew that I was obey Return a tenth of all your wealth to God. Erase your sins in lylng. He knew that his stone god was incapable of such a deed. the waters of baptism. Remove the foreskin of every male of your (Pause.) My father actually tumed me over to the priests, the, the, household. (Pause.) the necromancers, the astrologers, the . . . tumed me over to Some commandments are more difficult to obey Cut your them to become a sacrifice-an offering-to those bloodless son's throat and bum his flesh upon the altar of God. That is not gods. (Pause.) Can I describe to you what it feels like to lie with an easy thing to do no matter how obedient I want to be. I want your back cold upon that lifeless stone? Can I make you to keep my son. The presence of opposing desires chums within understand the agony of breathing when your arms are wrapped me. Like the water and fire of a great storm, each tearing into the so tightly against your body that your ribs begin to crackle and other, threatening to obscure true vision. (Pause.) splinter? Can I make you smell the fear as it rises within you and The day that I was born was a great day for my father. He strangles your thoughts and reason as you feel the knife grip celebrated. Friends came to the house and they drank long into your flesh here-(He grabs the SON by the throat. Pause.) the night. When they left it was still dark outside and they Knowing that you are a dead man? (Pause. He releases his grip. looked up and saw a star falling from the sky. It took four other Pause.) stars with it. Being astrologers they were able to determine from The angel of the Lord stayed the knife and gu~dedme here to this omen, even in their drunkenness-that I was to become a this desert to establish a foundation for a progeny that will fill the great man and that I would one day supplant the king. Like all earth. (Pause.) How can I do that wthout YOU? (Pause.) Knowing men of the kingdom they feared the king and what he might do what it's like to lie on one of these . . . I- (Pause.) I couldn't face if he ever discovered the~rknowledge of future events in his life if you. they didn't tell him. So they obtained an audience with the king (Pause. The SON rubs his injured throat. At one point he tries to and imparted their knowledge to h~m.The king then offered say something, but nothing comes. He tries to make eye contact with silver and jewels for my life. But my father, though he feared the the FATHER but is ignored. Finally the SON decides tofinish building king, though he followed after the idolatry of the king, tried to the altar: He worksfor some time alone. Eventually the FATHER joins obtain my safety and succeeded by delivering to the king my In th~work. They place the last stone together Pause.) SON: half-brother just recently born to my father's concubine. The I don't want to-die. and vou don't want to kill me. And vet., , greatful king took that child by the feet swinging with all his ne~therof us wants to deny the will of God. might and smashed its head against the stone of the floor before FATHER: Would I rather become the father of nations or remain the his throne. My father watched his son's . . . murder. (Pause.) father of one? A changeling saved my life. To appease an idolater's irrational SON: Are they mutually exclusive? anxieties. Of course I never knew of this until I was an adult FATHER: They must be. when the mother of that child, the concubine, told me on a day SON: Why? How do you know that? when she had been particularly provoked by my mere existence. FATHER: How else can it be? I don't know what was special about that day m her m~ndbut SON: You have another son- her intent was to hurt me. To make me feel guilty about FATHER: I don't want it to be through hlm- something my father had done to her for my sake. It worked. 1 SON: Maybe God does! was hurt. I felt guilty. But eventually my gu~ltbecame anger. FATHER: I don't believe that! Do you? Towards my father. I hated him. And I hated his gods for I SON: I don't know. How would I know? (Pause.) What 1 want to blamed them-I blamed his belief in them-for all the believe is that somehow we can go through with this . . . and I bloodletting, for there was more than the loss of that ch~ld-so won't have to die. (Pause.) much more-that I'd pretended not to see. So much blood. FATHER: We can not proceed with the assumption that the angel of (Pause.) the Lord will intercede for you as he dld for me. (Pause.) Think In my nghteous fury I mocked my father's gods. I brought how disappointed both of us will be if he does not come. (Pause.) them an offering. I took a lamb into their presence, Into the \lie must proceed. And we must proceed with the assumption courtyard where they all stood, stiff, upright, s~lent,blind, that you will die. unconcerned like so many dead trees. I wandered among them, SON: I don't understand what-why we're being tested this way- tempting them with the blood of the lamb, offenng them the n~hatsgoing on here. Why this is-. It doesn't make sense to me. innocent flesh. Nothing. None of them partook. I brought in What klnd of test is this? three lambs supposing that one was not enough. Still they (Sudden light change as he speaks the last line. The MOTHER is presented themselves as useless, though somewhat artistic, now standing where the FATHER stood.) carvings of stone and wood and clay. Formed by man in the MOTHER: I don't know.

SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE

I took my father's axe into the courtyard of the voiceless gods and hacked to bits all of them that would not answer me. That would not accept my offering. I killed them. And there was no blood. How can a true god not bleed when you kill it?

SON: Mother, how am I supposed to deal with this? How am I SON: Mother, he tr~edto kill me! supposed to react? MOTHER: And we banished him! He has been wandering about on MOTHER: I don't think your father really considered your feelings. those dry sands for many years. He has a family now, and they SON: Exactly! live l~kenomads, moving their tents from place to place, MOTHER: Or mine. wandering to and fro, lmng by their cunning. A very hard SON: Why? existence. The kind of life that could change a man. And now he MOTHER: Should he have? has returned. Your father loves his son and has welcomed him SON: Of course. Into his home as he would any stranger, as you would any MOTHER: Why? stranger, and expects the rest of h~shousehold to do likewise. SON: Mother, why-, why don't y-. (A vocal sigh.) You exasperate SON: He expects a lot of me. me. MOTHER: Fathers are llke that. MOTHER: I'm sorry SON: Mother. I have grown up hating him! SON: No you're not. You're proud of yourself. You enjoy doing this MOTHER: Then it is time for you to change. to me. SON: How? 1 hate him! How can I eat with him? How can I bear to MOTHER: I haven't done anything to you. look at him? How can my father expect me to sleep in the same SON: You've taken Father's side. house ~7thhim? It requires too much of me. I can't do it. MOTHER: You don't even know what your fathers side is. MOTHER: (With hisface in her hands.) Hush. Hush. Calm yourself. SON: I know he's brought that murderer back into our midst. Look at me. Please look at me. (Pausc.) There now. That's ~t. MOTHER: Your brother is not a murderer. (Pausc.) Better now? SON: He wanted to kill me with an arrow. You caught him. \iou told SON: hlother- me that. MOTHER: Son. You must submit. MOTHER: That was long ago. You were a child. He was young. SON: I ca- SON: Old enough to want to kill out of jealousy It was serious MOTHER: bucan . . . do it. (Pausc. Stroking his hair andface.) You enough that you asked Father to exile him and hls mother. To are strong enough. (Pausc.) You can do anything you want to do. send them out into the desert. (Pause.) You can do anything that you know is right. MOTHER: Yes? (Pausc. The FATHER enters.) SON: Father exiled them. He banished them. FATHER: Are you two going to join the feast? MOTHER: Yes. MOTHER: Shortly (Pause.) My son was just about to thank the Lord SON: And now he's brought them back. Prepared a feast, a for the safe return of his brother. celebration. Surely Father can't expect me to greet them ivlth FATHER: 1 see. jpausr.) open loving arms. MOTHER: I will leave you . . . to rejoice together. MOTHER: He is your brother. (Slip C.YI~S.Pa~ist?. Light chatigc. Pausc. SON: Half-brother. Who tned to kill me. FATHER: \Ve117 MOTHER: Perhaps he5 changed. SON: I am ready. SON: Oh, Mother. FATHER: I am- (Pause.) I have. . . . (Pausc.) Forgive me for the way MOTHER: It's possible. I have spoken here today I do not doubt God or his mlsdom. I SON: Yes, but it's not very probable. s~mply-, (Pausc.) I am ashamed of my own inability to MOTHER: Oh, so you're able to look on the heart or a man now i~nderstiindour Father . . my lack of falth . . . I'm sorry

SEPTEMBER 1997 P.4GE 33 SUNSTONE

(The FATHER approaches the son, touches his head the same way The FATHER ties the SON5 hands infront and the arms tied to his The MOTHER did. The FATHER proceeds to a kind of inventory of the sides. He binds thefeet and legs and positions the SON on the altar As SON'S body. He examines-memorizes-theface, visually and he works the light around the altar begns to intensqy and shrink, physically. He goes on to the shoulders, chest and arms. As he is leaving the most part ofthe stage in darkness while the light around examining the left arm he suddenly grasps it by theforearm with his the altar should be almost dgficult to look at by the time we reach own left arm and the SON grasps his. At the same time they draw blackout. The FATHER places the wood around the SON'S body. I/he together and embrace each other with their right arms and kiss each hasn't already, he brings thefire to the altar Pause. The FATHER other on the neck. They hold the embracefor some time. They look at places his hands upon the SON's body-the chest and hands. each other and smile. They rest theirforeheads together) Eventually the FATHER'S body begns to shake as he weeps silently. He SON: Father? When the sacrifice is complete-when the fire has reaches over to close the SON'S eyes but the SON refuses this gesture. died-take what shall remain of me . . . the ashes . . . and give By this time the SON is panting and weeping. The FATHER draws the

/ them to my mother and say to her . . . "this is the sweet smelling knge and holds itflat on the SON'S chest. The FATHER will not look at savor of your son." (Pause.) the SON as he brings the knife, very hesitantly, to the SON'S throat. FATHER: Son? Pause.) SON: I wish I could have said goodbye to her. (Pause.) Father . . . please? FATHER: Perhaps she will understand that it is a glorious honor to (Slowly the FATHER turns to look at the SON. He removes the knife be deemed by the Lord a worthy sacrifice. Then perhaps she will from the SON'S throat and with hisfree hand strokes the 50~'sface.) forgive me. (Pause.) FATHER:~y son- SON: Father, bind me . . . tightly, so that I cannot move. So that I do (He kisses his SON. Maintaining eye contact the FATHER brings the not ruin the sacrifice. kn$e up to the son5 throat again very swqtly-the SON cries out. (Pause. The FATHER begns to tie up the SON using the sashes that Blackout.) E they both wear around their waists, and the cords that bind the wood.

CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND, VIRGINIA

These days spring means the Lvhite \\ings of snowy egrets rising off a barrier Island. Marsh grass and baybem leaves, the food of wild ponies, bloning. We have driven down for n glide of days-birdwatching, bench\valk~ng- the easy way we l~veouts~dc the clt): IL has been one of those battering Lvark cveeks when the only way to sun.1ve ivas ro bend your knees, willoy. Today I sink Into fine \\.hire sand. pick up a mermaids purse, hlack egg case of a skate. Watch the \vay t~de~atcrmo\.es with wnd-how together the). sway Where would \ve be \\-~thoutthe lnpplngl

Things come to me walking the beach. . . . It's as if the pull of the t~de lengthens your life, a salted \vind allowing you to see. Hear the sounds that fade in the struggle-~nternal p~ngs-the sllcnce that allows you to breathe. deeply SUNSTONE

Since Utah's statehood, ms church leaders have accepted prudential political restraints. Their experience has shown that regulal; direct Church politicking arouses resentment, raises questions of religious ideals, divides the Church, and results in occasional defeats.

THE LDS CHURCHAND

By Rod Decker

TAH'S HISTORICAL FATE IS TO BECOME BORING. it remains not only the most powerful single interest in Utah In its beginnings, Utah offered an instructive spec- politics, but the most powerful single interest in the politics of utacle: a debate over fundamental principles con- any American state. ducted amid the struggle to master a new land. Mormon pio- This paper discusses Utah's method of settling church-state neers wanted a society governed by their religion, different in questions, illustrates changing practice with four stories, and principle from the rest of America, and Mormons and gentiles draws conclusions. fought over power and righteousness with speeches, armies, courts, boycotts, prisons, and occasional murders. Mormons UTAH'S QUIET COURTS lost that argument, and Utah now has a republican form of Utahns resolve church-state issue through government, as the Constitution guarantees. Mormons and politicians instead ofjudga. gentiles now argue over symbols and scruples. Instead of desperate battles over fundamentals, Utahns now conduct mock ELIGION has more influence in Utah than in other battles over small points in morals legislation. Utah has be- American places, and Utah addresses questions of come more peaceful-and less interesting. It now differs from R church and state differently than does the federal gov- other American places only in subtle detail. ernment. In the United States, most church-state issues are set- In politics, Utah's chief difference from the other states re- tled by judicial interpretation of the First Amendment to the mains the influence of the LDS church. Most Utah voters are U.S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an Mormons, and most elected officials are faithful Mormons. establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise The most important demographic in the Utah electorate is the thereof. . ." Federal judges have been able to find more in those difference between Mormons and non-Mormons. No one on sixteen words than is readily apparent in an ordinary reading. Capitol Hill can remember when Church leaders failed to get For example, judges say those words mean that there can be anything they asked for from legislators. Mormon ideas of no public prayers in school, nor at school graduations, but morality, family, work, and prudence underlie public discus- they also mean that legislators or city council members may sion. On issues of public morals, the Church, in recent pray publicly during their meetings. In Utah, the First decades, has beaten all comers except the federal courts. The Amendment has expanded into a virtual code of law to govern Church neither exercises nor seeks control of government, yet LDS seminaries. The Church may not use public school buildings for religious instruction, but children may be released ROD DECKER, veteran Utah journalist, is a television news re- from school to attend seminary Students may not receive porter for KV~VChannel 2 in Salt Lake City where he covers local credit toward high school graduation for seminary classes, but politics and government. He lives with his wi,fe Christine and their schools may count children in seminary as being in school for three children. He is also author of the novel An Environment for purposes of claiming government monies, provided the semi- Murder (Signature Books, 1994). nary delivers attendance records to the school, instead of the

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 35 SUNSTONE

school sending a powers of the student to the state, and the ac- seminary to pick tions of officials. up the records. ' No additional All of that law limits or guid- turns out to have ance have ever been hidden in been provided by the First Utah courts inter- Amendment, preting the Utah waiting for fed- Constitution. eral judges to re- Within the fed- veal the full eral limits, meaning of the Utahns resolve words. questions of In comparison church and state to the First by political prac- Amendment lan- tice rather than guage on religion, by judicial de- Utah's constitu- cree. tion has many Utah has more words to worked out its much less effect. practice with re- The Utah spect to religion Constitution re- and politics since peats the words The Salt Lake Temple bedecked for a statehc statehood, but of the First In politics, Utah? chief differencefi-om ofher statc 3s remains that practice is Amendment, and . -.a . . rarely examined. then ~oeson for the influence of the LDS ch urch. 11le Cht~rchdoesn't control the Stories from the L, 205 more words, governnlent, yet it is still tile most 17owerful single interest in the century since J L, guaranteeing politics of uny nmencanA--- state. statehood may be rights of con- less interesting science and pro- than those from hibiting religious pioneer days, but tests, union of church and state, church domination. and use they have their own charm and offer their own lessons. Still, of public money for religious worship.2 But while its constitu- they are seldom told. Here are four illustrative stories. tion says more, Utah's courts have said less. Indeed, in all the one-hundred years of Utah statehood, one cannot point to a THE STORY OF MOSES THATCHER single case where the Utah constitutional language on church The Church intervenes in an early election. and state had any practical effect beyond the guarantees already in the federal Constitution. The Utah Constitution has HEN Utah achieved statehood, finally in 1896, never been used to protect the rights of unpopular religious LDs leaders were unsure how they should proceed beliefs. For example, in 1947, Utah courts upheld the criminal in politics. They met repeatedly to discuss the convictions of dissident Mormons for conspiring to teach (as wquestion, and, after one such meeting, Church President opposed to simply practicing) polygamy.3 And in 1955, the Wilford Woodruff said that "The general opinion was for none Utah Constitution permitted the taking away of children from of the Presidency, Twelve, or the presidents of seventy to take otherwise fit polygamous parents.' Nor has the Utah the stump to make political speeches." After another meeting, Constitution limited the involvement of religion and govern- Apostle Franklin D. Richards said the rule was for "All to have , ment. In 1993, when the Salt Lake City Council assigned an full liberty of conscience, but all presiding officials to avoid employee to recruit people to pray at council meetings, the prominence."h But not everyone agreed. Apostle John W Utah Supreme Court held that this was not an expenditure of Taylor opined, "The idea should not be allowed to grow that public money for religious worship.5 The opinion was long because a man occupies a high ecclesiastical position, he and learned, but the court seemed to be looking less at the should be shut out of political office^."^ In contrast, Frank Constitution than at the legislature, whose leaders stood ready Cannon, who was a noted Mormon politician and writer until and able to amend the basic law were judges to rule the state he apostatized, argued that Mormon leaders had agreed for- Constitution meant what it said. Federal judges use the First mally in the Utah constitution and informally in promises to Amendment to limit and guide the will of majorities, the national officials that "political dictation shall cease."* Cannon

PAGE 36 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE

believed Mormon leaders had Roberts, a member of the First promised to stay out of politics Council of Seventy and a and to subject themselves to spe- Democrat, opposed the document cial political limitations. at first, but agreed to sign after Angus M. Cannon, president of some weeks of earnest discussion the Salt Lake Stake, personified with the Brethren. Moses Thatcher the general confusion. In 1895, he refused to sign the Political counseled his flock to vote, but Manifesto, and when, at general said no Mormon should run for conference, the names of the apos- office. In 1896, he changed his tles were read to be sustained by views and ran for office himself, the membership, Thatcher's name standing as a Republican for the was not included. He was expelled state senate. He was defeated by from the Quorum of the Twelve his wife, Martha Hughes Cannon, Apostles. l2 who ran on a Democratic slate.9 In the election of 1896, the fol- The confusion brought gnef to lowing November, Democrats, led Moses Thatcher, a popular nationally by William Jennings Democratic apostle. In 1895, Bryan, swept Utah. The newly Thatcher had been a candidate for Democratic Utah Legislature United States senator. In those would certainly select a days, Senators were chosen by the Democratic U.S. senator, and state legislatures. First Presidency Moses Thatcher seemed the fa- Counselor Joseph E Smith, who, vorite candidate. He said he would along with a preponderance of run. Church leaders fiercely op- Church leaders, was a Republican, Moses Thatcher posed his election and campaigned against him. The Church- Toke the pulpit in genera' During the Thatcher controversy, Church conference, where he obliquely owned Deseret News repeatedly criticized Thatcher. i(epublicans kaders denied politicking even while doing editorialized, saying Thatcher's won the election, and the so-a pattern that still persists and election would be a "gross insult" Republican legislature did not objkcates Utah politics. to Mormons. In what now seems choose Thatcher as senator. But an astonishing assertion, the News the Church drew complaints for said the election of a United States interfering in politics. Some LDS Democrats complained about senator by the state legislature was not a political question: Joseph E Smith's conference speech and Republican political It is not a political question, for the candidate's poli- speeches given in stake conferences and wards by Apostle tics cuts no figure in it. It is religious pure and simple, Francis ~~rnan."And the Brethren had even more cause to in that it involves nothing more nor less than ques- worry about their political activities. A young Mormon lawyer tions relative to the integrity of a religious organiza- named Samuel Thurman, who worked in the United States tion, the maintenance of its discipline and the perpe- Attorney's office in Salt Lake City, called on Church leaders. He tuity of its doctrines.13 said his boss, United States Attorney John Judd, a non- In the legislature, Thatcher began as the candidate with the Mormon, had a list of 350 leading men of the Church who most votes but fell short of the majority required for election. were continuing to live with plural wives. Thurman added that After fifty-two indecisive ballots, a compromise candidate, Judd did not intend to bring criminal charges against those Joseph Rawlins, was selected. There was considerable syrn- men, provided they were discreet in breaking the federal law. pathy for Thatcher among legislators. After he had lost, he was Though Thurman said nothing about Church political activity, invited to address the body and drew applause when he said Church leaders interpreted his visit as a warning from that church and state must stay separate. Democrat Judd that if Church leaders campaigned too effec- After Thatcher was expelled as an apostle and lost the elec- tively for Republicans, Judd might charge them with tion for senator, several general authorities brought charges polygamy '' against him in Church court, hoping to have him excommuni- At general conference in April 1896, President Joseph E cated. Thatcher avoided excommunication only by signing pa- Smith introduced a document informally called the "Political pers in which he recanted in detail his refusal to sign the Manifesto." It said that any "leading official" of the Church Political Manifesto, by admitting to "grave error," and by seeking political office should first apply to "proper authori- asking forgiveness from Church leaders for defylng them.I4 ' ties" for permission. It also denied that the Church was inter- While no Church leader ever publicly voiced regret over fering in politics. Before the conference convened, IDS general Church actions in the Thatcher case, Jean Bickmore White, a authorities were all asked to sign the document. Elder B. H. leading student of the politics of the period, says Church

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 37 SUNSTONE

leaders had to have felt unhappy Republican Party, and LDS church that they had made a martyr of support to dominate Utah politics him.15 for more than a decade, until the Note that the Church could not machine dissolved in the political simply dictate Utah politics. The liquors of prohibition.16 Smoot Church had to exert itself and spent much of his time in make compromises to prevent Washington, too far away to tend Moses Thatcher's election. Note the wheels and gears of his polit- also that at the time an informal ical creation. Daily operations rule held that the Church should were run by lieutenants, notably not interfere in politics. LDS E. H. Callister, who was appointed church leaders accepted that rule, chief of the Internal Revenue referred to it, and claimed to Senice for the intermountain follow it. In fact, throughout states, but who spent most of his Utah's history, there have been time on Utah politics. In their fre- such informal rules ostensibly lim- quent correspondence, Callister iting Church action in politics. A and Smoot, refer to "Luther," as in current informal rule dictates that "you must wire Luther immedi- the Church participate in politics ately," or "Luther read me your only when issues of morality are letter." "Luther" was a code name concerned. But in Moses for Church President Joseph E Thatcher's case, Church leaders in- smith,17 who was "a senior terpreted the rule against inter- though usually inactive partner" fering in politics to mean that the in the Federal Bunch political ma- election of a United States senator Joseph F. Smith chine.18 He was consulted on se- was not a political event. In fact, president smith, a.k.a. a~~~h~~nsecretly rious problems or major deci- the informal rule provided no con- sions. When Smoot and his straint on Church conduct. And, Churchfun& to afloat the colleagues needed a newspaper to in fact, all such informal rules Intermountain Republican, a political, reach gentile Republicans who throughout Utah history have pro- gentile-oriented newspaper wouldn't read the Deseret News, vided only such limits as Church they founded the lntennountain leaders chose for themselves in Republican. But they couldn't af- any particular case. ford the newspaper, so President Smith secretly provided During the Thatcher controversy, Church leaders denied Church funds to establish the paper and cover its 10sses.'~The that they were politicking even as they politicked. Church politicians supported the paper themselves as much as they leaders, confronted by decades of accusations of political inter- were able: they asked "Luther" for money only when necessary. ference, now often feel uncomfortable when they must partici- Nonetheless, their opponents suspected Church subsidies and pate politically They are likely to act quietly or interpret what demanded public audits, which were never performed. they are doing as something other than politicking. Church In addition to Church influence, the Federal Bunch used discretion often prevents people from knowing what Church federal patronage. At the Republican State Convention in leaders do in particular cases, but it also fuels a general suspi- 1912, thirty postmasters and many other federal employees cion that the Church controls politics secretly from behind the worked the delegates on behalf of the Federal ~unch.~'Like E. scenes. Those patterns-the Church's trylng to prevent public H. Callister, these men held federal jobs but earned their liv- knowledge of its participation, on the one hand, and the over- ings by keeping the Federal Bunch in power. estimation of Church influence in politics, on the other-per- Politically, the Federal Bunch was successful. After Reed sist in Utah to the present. Smoot's election, Republicans held big majorities in every state legislature until 1917. In 1909, at the height of Federal Bunch REED SMOOT AND PROHIBITION power, all Utah state senators and all but two representatives To keep political power; Mormon Republicans opposed were Republicans. The Republicans also controlled the gov- Prohibition, which the Church supported. emor and other statewide elected officers. Utah was one of only two states to vote for Republican William Howard Taft for EED SMOOT, an LDS apostle and successful Provo president in 1912, the year Teddy Roosevelt split the businessman, won election to the United States Senate Republicans. Republicans imposed conservative policies on R in 1903, and proceeded to build a Utah political ma- the state. Utah was one of four states to reject the Sixteenth chine dubbed "the Federal Bunch." He and his colleagues Amendment (federal income tax), the only state to reject the (mostly active LDS men) combined federal patronage, the Seventeenth Amendment (direct election of senators), and, in

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1917, Utah may have been the ment against Mormons as govern- only state without a Public Service ment had been used against them omm mission.^' before statehood. Smoot, Callister, The Federal Bunch displayed and the other Mormons who led their power most clearly in 1908, the Federal Bunch believed when-~eedSmoot fired Governor Mormon control of Utah politics John Cutler. The Federal Bunch was necessary. To maintain that I control, they needed gentile votes. had made Cutler wgovernor four I 1 years before, when they united be- prohibition; they feared, might hind him to defeat incumbent I I cost the Federal Bunch those Governor Heber J. Wells. Though needed votes. new to politics, Cutler was ad- I I Before these political realities mitted b; all to be a good gov- became clear, Smoot and the ernor, and he announced that he Federal Bunch did support would run for a second term. But, IProhibition. Early in 1908, the as E. H. Callister complained, machine's newspaper, the Cutler wouldn't "train with the Intermountain Republican, ran a boys,"22 that is, he wouldn't ap- I I daily, front-page article advocating point enough members of the $ Prohibition. But in May, Smoot re- Federal Bunch to state offices. 5 ceived a letter from Fred J. Keisel, Reed Smoot met with Cutler and I a prominent Ogden Republican told him that President Joseph E $ and liquor dealer, who said that if Smith had ordered him (Smoot) to 2 Republicans pressed for . . - pick the candidate who could get Prohibition, the American Party ;he most votes. Smoot said that Reed Smoot would "break out all over." Smoot wasn't Cutler, and he ordered Smoot and his political machine, "the took Keisel's advice, and the Cutler to withdraw from the race. Federal Bunch quietly switched its Cutler reluctantly complied, and Federal Bunch," opposed Prohibition to curv position; the lntermountnin the Federal ~unchgot Federal Republican stopped its advocacy Vpentile votes-and thus maintain Marshall William S& elected Mormon political control. for Prohibition. Whenever Smoot was asked about Prohibition, "he -~ovemor.~~ Prohibition sank the Federal extolled the virtues of temper- Bunch. One might think that because of strong Mormon influ- ance." 2" ence, Utah would have been a leader in the Prohibition move- But while Smoot and the Federal Bunch saw the necessity of ment, and that the Mormon Federal Bunch would have sup- placating gentile voters, other Church leaders saw the evils of ported dry laws. But politics dictated otherwise. When Reed drink. In the 1908 fall general conference, Apostle Heber J. Smoot was first elected to the Senate, he was junior to gentile Grant secured passage of a resolution pledging Mormons to do Senator Thomas Keams, a rich mining man. Smoot and all they properly could to obtain Prohibition laws. From then Keams competed for control of the Republican Party. Smoot on, a majority of the Brethren pointed to the resolution and not only had the support of the Church-he was also the fought for the dry side.27 Caught in the middle, President smarter politician. Keams lost his Senate seat and control of Joseph F: Smith proclaimed the Church neutral, and when the the party Angry in defeat, he bolted the Republican Party, battle began in the 1909 Legislature, he left on vacation for founded the anti-Mormon American Party, and bought the Salt Hawaii and stayed away until the session was over. Lake Tribune to disseminate American Party news and For eight years, the Church, the community, and the Utah opinion.24 Republican Party were divided on Prohibition. The fight When American Party candidates won the Salt Lake City turned acrimonious. At one point, the brother of Apostle mayoral and council races in 1905, American Party officials Heber J. Grant publicly accused Reed Smoot and the Federal quickly charged Church President Joseph E Smith with adul- Bunch of taking bribes from liquor interests, although the tery for living with a polygamous wife, whom he had married charge was almost certainly false.28Republican State Senator before the 1890 Manifesto. The Tribune suggested that Smith Nephi L. Monis, an LDS stake president, noted that he and should resign as Church president and perhaps flee to Mexico other Prohibition leaders met with the First Presidency, who to avoid jail, and the paper cheerfully looked forward to sim- strongly encouraged their efforts. But in the State Capitol, the ilar prosecutions against all polygamous Church leaders. campaign for Prohibition was blocked by Republican Party President Smith pleaded guilty to unlawful cohabitation and leaders-that is, the Federal Bunch, who were faithful paid a fine of $300.~~Mormon leaders began to fear that to the Mormons. When Morris and others told Federal Bunch lobby- extent their opponents won power, they would use govern- ists of their meetings with the First Presidency, the Federal

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 39 Bunch lobbyists laughed and said and LDS policies and politicians that the First Presidency knew suffered a series of humiliating de- where to find them.29The Federal feats. Bunch blocked anti-liquor bills in In 1932, the first Depression the Legislature, and the two election, the seemingly impreg- Prohibition bills to get through nable Reed Smoot was defeated. Federal Bunch opposition were ve- Smoot had served for thirty years toed by Federal Bunch Governor in the Senate, rising to chair the William Spry. Finance Committee and becoming In 1916, Democrats nominated a respected power in Washington. a Jewish immigrant businessman, He used his influence to protect Simon Bamberger, for governor. Utah industries: his efforts to He promised a "bone-dry" bill for maintain high tariffs on sugar, Utah. To prove his good faith, he lead, and wool won him the love boasted that at personal loss of of businessmen. Republican $5,000, he had stopped beer sales leaders sought his views in the at the Lagoon resort, which he smoke-filled rooms where they owned. Republicans, too, in 1916, picked presidents and made saw the popularity of Prohibition. policy. National politicians re- But even though their platform spected Smoot because of his also promised anti-liquor laws, the good political judgment, his repu- public no longer trusted tation for honesty, and his unri- Republicans on that issue. In addi- valed knowledge of many details tion to their advantage on the of government, which he had ac- liquor issue, Utah Democrats in quired by working harder than anyone else. Many Mormons took l9 the popularity of Relief Society President Robison organized President Woodrow Wilson, who pride in the acceptance of one of had "kept us out of war." Prohibition f?ducation committees in every their apostles as a national polit- ~amber~eiand the Democrats Utah ward; nevertheless, 60 percent of Utahns ical fi&re, and Church president swept in Utah and en- voted to repeal the anti-liquor amendment. Heber J. Grant said publicly that acted Prohibition. Democratic vic- he would vote for Smoot, though tory in both Utah and Washington he wasn't telling anyone else how finished the Federal Bunch. But because back in 1914 Utah to vote.32But despite the apparent advantage of those years of and the rest of the country had begun the direct election of service, Smoot was beaten by University of Utah Professor senators, Reed Smoot was elected by the voters, not the legisla- Elbert Thomas. ture, and he survived and flourished despite the death of his A worse defeat befell the Church the following year, when machine.30 Utah voted to repeal Prohibition. At the urging of President By today's standards, the conduct of the Federal Bunch and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congress passed the Twenty-First the churchmen who led it seems greasy But those men came Amendment early in 1933, allowing liquor to be distilled from a tradition of Church leadership in Utah politics, felt and sold again in America. Each state was to approve or re- threatened by their political opponents, and played by the po- ject the measure at special conventions. In response, Utah litical rules of their time. Still, it would be hard not to conclude lawmakers scheduled an election for November 1933 in that continuous participation by LDS leaders in state politics order to decide whether their delegates to the convention might sometimes require them to compromise their religious would be wet or dry. And after a complicated series of acci- ideals. dents and maneuvers, Utahns agreed that in the same election they would decide whether to repeal Utah's bone-dry DEPRESSION AND DEFEAT state law, too. Losses in Smoot? defeat, Prohibition? repeal, and Roosevelt? The Church campaigned energetically against repeal. landslide helped the Church withdraw from politics. General Relief Society President Louise Y. Robison super- vised the calling of a committee in every ward to educate URING the early decades of Utah statehood, the members and insure that they voted. In general conference, Church successfully participated in Utah politics. But President Heber J. Grant prayed that Utah would reject the during the Great Depression, the Church's participa- proposed legal changes. On the other side, the wets pointed tion in politics was a failure. The Depression affected Utah to bootlegging and related crimes to show that Prohibition more heavily than almost any other state.jl In those hard had failed. But their strongest argument was that repeal was times, unemployment reached a third of the Utah labor force, an integral part of President Roosevelt's plan to fight the

PAGE 40 SEPTEMBER 1997 Depression and restore pros- LEGISLATIVE perity. Repeal triumphed by a ma- REAPPORTIONMENT jority of 60 percent, and the size In the 1950s, the Church became of the victory proved that many comfortable with non-Mormons active Mormons had ignored their having real political powel: leaders' counsel and voted for liquor. And the defeat grew worse N a 1950s battle over the for the Church. By the time the makeup of the Utah Utah convention met, a majority I Legislature, the Church left of states had already chosen re- behind much of its fear that non- peal, and several states were ma- Mormons would take control of neuvering to provide the thirty- Utah politics and turn govern- eighth state vote needed for ment against the Church. ratification. As it became clear Utah's Constitution provides that Utah would vote for the that legslative districts be re- amendment, other states gave up drawn every ten years to account their own hopes of grabbing a for population changes according moment in headlines and timed to the national census. Such reap- their actions to make Utah the de- portionment is a painful process, cisive state. Thus, when Utah's since it means that some areas will vote brought liquor back to lose power and some legislators America, the London Evening News will lose their seats. For at least proclaimed: "Prohibition Is Dead! the past century, the urban areas

Mormons Killed It! Whoo~ee! along0 Utahj Wasatch Front have Happy Days Are Here ~~ain!"~~ Heber J. Grant gained population faster than the All over America, people sponta- President Grant, in a series of political defeats, State"ra1 areas. Utah reappor- neously cooperated to draw tionment has come to mean fewer worldwide attention to the prayed in general conferencefor Prohibition- and more .,ban lawmakers, Church's embarrassment. which was then repealed-and publically a trend unpopular with mral Depression politics defeated supported Senator Sn~oot-who then lost politicians. In the 19305, Utah the Church again, this time in the lawmakers ignored the state con- 1936 presidential election. The re-election. stitution and neglected to redis- supreme Court had declared trict. When, in 1951, Governor J. much of the New Deal legislation Bracken Lee reminded legislatures unconstitutional, and a frustrated President Roosevelt, of their duty, districts had been unchanged for twenty years, seeking a second term, hinted at action to curb the justices. and the disproportions had grown large. The most populous Republican Alf Landon, who ran against Roosevelt, opposed urban state senate district contained about three times as many Constitutional change. Just before election day, the Deseret voters as the least populous rural district, and the one-third of News ran a long editorial in an unusually prominent place- Utahns who lived in rural counties elected a majority of all the top of its front page. The editorial noted that one candi- state senators.35Legislators, unable to agree on how to redraw date for president promised to keep his oath to uphold the the political map in 1951, assigned the question to a study Constitution, while another spoke disparagingly of the doc- committee. While that committee met, rural legislators seized ument and would make no promise regarding it. The edito- the initiative and proposed a constitutional amendment, rial said that those "who believe the revelation and the words which said that the House of Representatives would be based of the prophet must stand for the Constitution. Every patriot on population, but that each of Utah's twenty-nine counties should feel duty bound to vote to protect it." 34 Thus, the would have one state senator, regardless of population. Under Church invoked the Constitution, Mormons' most revered that proposed amendment, the 274,000 citizens of Salt Lake political symbol, making voting for Landon a witness of County would have elected one senator, and likewise, the 364 faith. Nevertheless, Roosevelt carried 70 percent of Utah citizens of Daggett County would also have elected one sen- votes. ator. In 1953, legislators debated the amendment emotionally. The defeats of the Depression years caused a partial with- Urban lawmakers complained that their constituents would be drawal of the LDS church from Utah politics. Since 1936, the deprived of political equality. Rural lawmakers said redis- Church has never officially endorsed a political candidate, tricting on the basis of population would put both houses though Church leaders have occasionally indicated their per- under control of Salt Lake, Utah, and Weber counties, where sonal preferences. the majority of Utahns lived. Finally, both houses passed the proposed amendment by the required two-thirds majority. The

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 41 SUNSTONE

proposal then went to a vote of the ment action harmful to the people for ratification. Church, even if a majority of LDS church leaders supported Utahns in the changing cities came the one-senator-per-county to favor such action. As State amendment in the legislature and Senator Welby Young, of Wasatch worked for its passage by the elec- County, said, "Elder Moyle made it torate. The Deseret Navs editorial- clear to me that the whole idea of ized repeatedly for the idea, one senator per county was to pre- though the Salt Lake Tribune wrote vent control of state government against it. Bishops and stake presi- by gentiles-Catholics, Jews, dents advocated the plan from the Masons and labor unions."39 pulpit and by distributing litera- Then, just before the election, ture through wards. As one stake came a surprising turn of events. president explained in a letter for Democratic State Chairman bishops to read aloud in their Milton Weilenman, a Mormon, wards, "The Church has always saw LDS Church President David maintained that the Constitution 0.McKay at a luncheon where he of the United States is an inspired asked for, and was granted, a document and that the present meeting. The meeting was held at method of representation in the 7 A.M. in President McKay's office. two houses of Congress is the Weilenman brought three of his most desirable one yet discov- colleagues, each of whom op- ered." The stake president noted posed the one-senator-per-county that support for the one-senator- plan: lawyer Wally Sandack, State per-county amendment came David 0. McKay Senator Wendell Grover, and political science professor J. D. "after consideration by the President McKay rejected efoorts of Apostles General Authorities of the Williams. At the meeting, ac- When opponents of Henry D. Moyle and Harold B. Lee to secure cording to a memo written by the plan said it would be unfair to Mormon dominance of Utah politics. ~illiams,President McKay lii- urban residents, advocates' re- tened to the plan's opponents, sponse was that the United States who said that the proposal was Constitution has the same problem; "What about New York unfair but was supported by the general authorities of the and Nevada?" they asked. Church. Then, according to the memo, President McKay said: The Church effort on reapportionment was supenised by "Fourteen of the General Authorities may have given their as- Apostles Henry D. Moyle and Harold B. Lee, who sat on what sent during. my absence, but not fifteen." McKay continued, was informally called the political committee. Elder Lee ex- according to the memo, "If the Church were still back in plained his support for the amendment as arising from a desire Missouri as a minority group, they would certainly be opposed to make the state constitution more like the federal constitu- to political interference by some other church." He saw no tion: "The Lord inspired the leaders of this country to write a reason why the argument did not also apply in ~tah.~'The plan and that is my faith, that that plan upon which our First Presidency wrote a letter to University of Utah political country is based would be a good thing for the state. My faith science professor Frank Jonas about the proposed amend- is just that simple. . . ."37 But, in fact, it wasn't quite that ment, sayng that "the Church takes no position with reference simple. Elder Moyle told a group of local Church leaders, to it." Jonas gave the letter to Williams, who arranged to have "Brethren don't you realize that if this proposal is passed that it published in newspapers.41 Of the Utahns who voted, 63 the Church will control twenty-six of twenty-nine senators."38 percent opposed the amendment. Weilenman later said that Ever since gentiles first came to Utah in 1857, LDS church in- Elders Lee and Moyle believed they had pursued Church inter- fluence has been stronger in rural Utah than in the cities. Rural ests in good faith, but that President McKay had failed to sup- voters are more likely to elect local Church leaders to office port them. and to follow political counsel from general authorities. But Even though the amendment failed, the 1955 Legislature rural influence eventually declined. Both World War I1 and the passed a reapportionment plan that still gave disproportionate Cold War brought defense industries and non-Mormons to the power to rural Utah, though not so disproportionate as the state. Labor unions gained power. Utah was leaving its rural one-senator-per-county plan.42Within a decade, the United past, and many feared newcomers and modernity would States Supreme Court required all state legislatures to appor- threaten LDS influence. By securing a permanent majority of tion strictly on the basis of population, and federal judges have rural senators, Church leaders hoped to secure a permanent since enforced that requirement in Utah. majority of faithful LDs senators, who could prevent govern- The reapportionment controversy pointed to a decision for

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openness made by the LDS church with respect to Utah poli- won every fight over public morals it has entered, except tics. The Church could have tried to make Utah a fortress of those-most notably abortion-it lost in federal courts. Such faith, resistant to outside influences. Indeed, such a strategy battles include a referendum on liquor-by-the-drink, in 1968; is sometimes falsely attributed to Church leaders even nowa- a protracted legislative battle on the Equal Rights Amendment, days. In fact, however, the Church welcomes non-Mormons beginning in 1973;~~a fight over lotteries, through the mid- who move to Utah, and it does not oppose most business re- 1980s; and a referendum on pari-mutuel betting, in 1992. On cruitment or other development that brings in outsiders. Capitol Hill nowadays, the Church lobbies rarely, but always Church leaders believe that when outsiders see the Church decisively For example, in 1986, Church spokesmen pre- closely, many will like it better, and some will convert. As it served the privilege of clergy confidentiality to keep confes- has happened, the Church has prospered in Utah, while the sions of child abuse secret from legal authorities in certain cir- state has grown and Utahns have pursued outside business cumstances. And, in 1987, Church lobbyists defeated a investment; Utah has kept pace with changing American so- popular flat-tax proposal that would have abolished income- ciety tax deductions, including those for charitable and religious contributions. CONCLUSIONS To gain statehood, in 1896, Mormon leaders agreed to give up their ideal of a Church-ruled society, and they also agreed HESE stories show that at least three things often said to measures designed to limit Church influence in Utah poli- about the LDS church in Utah politics are not correct. tics. Those who wished to reduce Church influence argued T First, the Church never has dictated Utah politics, nor that Church leaders had agreed to special limitations on their are Mormons always unified on political questions. Rather, like political participation, limitations beyond those imposed on other political participants, the Church persuades, compro- other citizens. Nowadays, any special legal limits on Church mises, maneuvers, and wins some battles while losing others. politicking would almost certainly be unconstitutional. But, in Second, the recurring Book-of-Mormon pattern has not ap- any case, Utah courts have consistently refused to give force or plied in Utah politics. In a recurring pattern in the Book of meaning to any of the Utah provisions that limit church partic- Mormon, the people are faithful to their religion. Faithfulness ipation in politics or guarantee rights of religious minorities. In begets prosperity, but riches beget pride. The people become the absence of effective constitutional restraint, Utahns have puffed up and fail to heed the words of their prophets, and worked out church-state relations in political practice. In prac- that in turn brings disasters of various sorts. But when Utahns tice, LDS church leaders since statehood have accepted the idea have prospered, contrary to that pattern, they have listened to that they are subject to special political restraints, restraints Church leaders; it's when Utahns have become poor that they that don't apply to ordinary citizens. But these restraints are have failed to heed their prophets. It was the Depression that prudential, not legal. Church leaders have said and believed led Utahns to reject the political guidance of Church leaders, that "the Church does not interfere in politics," or that "the and even of the Republican Party Church participates in politics only on moral questions," but But if Utah has not followed the Book-of-Mormon pattern, those general rules have always been applied by Church neither has it followed the modernity theory That theory leaders, and they are open to exceptions. But though rules in holds that as people become more modem-that is, more ed- Utah have left Church leaders free to politick as they see fit, ex- ucated, prosperous, and urbane-they are likely to become perience has shown that regular, direct Church participation in less religious. Over the decades, Utahns have in fact become state politics will arouse resentment, raise questions of political more educated, prosperous and urbane, but they have become means incompatible with religious ideals, divide the Church, not less but more religious, and Church influence has in- and result in occasional defeats. creased. In the late 1960s, when public opinion polling be- The political history of Utah has been, in part, the story of came common in Utah, the state was said to be one of thirds: the Church's gradual withdrawal from politics. Besides un- in politics, one-third Democratic, one-third Republican and pleasant political experience, three other factors have con- one-third Independent; and in religion, one-third active tributed to political restraint. First, the Church no longer fears Mormon, one-third inactive Mormon and one-third non- government in the hands of non-Mormons as it did in polyga- Mormon. Now the state is more than 50 percent active mous times. Second, the Church has grown worldwide, and Mormon and only about one-sixth inactive Mormon. Utah is Utah politics have become less important to it. And third, still about one-third non-~ormon.~~During that same time, withdrawal from politics is part of a general Church tendency the Republican Party has grown much stronger, and toward withdrawal from secular affairs. That tendency was Republicans now outnumber Democrats in Utah by almost seen most recently in 1996, when President Gordon B. two-to-one. Mormons tend to be Republicans, and the in- Hinckley asked general authorities to leave positions on creased strength of Utah Republicanism has reflected, in part, boards of corporations. Though the Church politicks less than the growing strength of the LDs faith in Utah. it used to, it remains the most powerful influence in the state The Church now limits its political activity mostly to ques- and a sometime participant in state proceedings. And the tions of public morality, or to issues that directly affect the Mormon element continues to make Utah politics different Church as an institution. In the past 30 years, the Church has and entertaining. I3

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 43 SUNSTONE

NOTES

1. Lanner v. Wimmet; 662 F2d 1349. 2. Utah Constitution, art. 1, sec. 4; and art. 3, par. 1. 3. State v. Mussel; 175 P2nd 724. This case was later ovenurned by the United States Supreme Court under federal constitutional protections 333 U.S. 95; Utah Court accepted federal ruling at 223 PZnd 193. 4. In re Black 283 PZnd 887. 5. Society ofseparationists vs. Whitehead et al., 870 P2nd 916. 6. B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, vol. 6 (hovo: Brigham Young University Press, 1965). 31 1. 7. Franklin D. Richards Journal, 30 July 1895. cited in Jean Bickmore White. "Utah State Elections, 1895-1899 (Ph.D. diss., University of Utah. 1968). 62. 8. Abraham Cannon Journal, 7 November 1895, cited in White. 100. 9. Frank J. Cannon and Harvey J. O'Higtns. Under the Prophet in Utah: The National Menace of a Political Priestcraft (Boston: The C.M. Clarke Publishing Co.. 19111, 161. 10. White, 82 and 158. 11. White. 88. 12. Abraham Cannon Journal. 30 July 1895, cited in White, 85. 13. Stanley S. Ivins, "The Moses Thatcher Case," pamphlet available in the University of Utah, Mamott Library, Special Collections. 14. Deseret News, 18 November 1896. 15. Ivins, 11. 16. Kenneth G. Stauffer, "Utah Politics, 1912-1918" (Ph.D. diss., University strange gods of Utah, 1972). 17. Ellen Gunnell Callister, "The Political Career of Edward Henry Callister. i lust after strange gods 1885-1916 (master's thesis, University of Utah, 1967), 98, 107. the god who blesses the black sheep 18. Milton R. Memll, Reed Smoot, Apostle in Politics (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1990), 194. in the hardwood pews of a despised denomination 19. Callister, 69. the woman who lays her dark head on the shoulder 20. Goodivin's Weekly, 18 May 1912. Cited in Stauffer, 35. 21. Stauffer, 192. of an even darker woman, and sings 22. Callister, 84. "faith of our fathers," leaning into the hymn 23. Callister, 90. 24. Kent Sheldon Larsen, "The Life of Thomas Kearns" (master's thesis, even as she leans into her lover's embrace University of Utah, 1964). 25. Callister, 77. the god who blesses the woolly head of the old ram 26. Merrill, 190. wise ram crowned with an unruly shock of white 27. Callister, 106. 28. Stauffer, 104. stopped making the music of the herd 29. Nephi L. Moms to Francis Lyman, 20 March 1914, in University of Utah. when it ceased to fill him with ecstasy Mamott Library, Special Collections, Mary Cockayne Papers. box #79. 30. Brad E. Hainsworth, "Utah State Elections, 19161924" (Ph.D. diss., but is still charged with the static University of Utah, 1968). electricity of the mountaintop 31. Rolfe Thomas Quinn, "The Governorship of Henry H. Blood: The Critical Years. 1933-34 (master's thesis, University of Utah. 1960). bless the lambs who see the lightning in his eyes 32. John Kearnes, "Utah Electoral Politics, 1932-38" (Ph.D. diss., University of Utah, 1972). 74-75. i lust for the god of black gospel 33. Kearnes, 115. who deposits us in calvary's dark vestibule 34. Deseret News, 31 Oct 1931. 1. 35. Kenneth Holmes Mitchell, "The Struggle lor Reapportionment in Utah then opens the door to the light where the choir (master5 thesis, University of Utah, 1960), 149. sings "i'll fly away," and mahogany women in white 36. Letter from Park Stake President Charles B. Richmond. reprinted in gloves usher us into a heaven where the reverend Mitchell. 162. 37. Mitchell, 102. gary davis, sonny terry, brownie mcghee, queen ida, 38. Mitchell, 97. Mitchell takes this quote from an interview with an un- skip james and odetta shake the walls with their voices named source. 39. Mitchell. 108. i lust for the veiled god 40. Memo by J. D. Williams, 23 November 1954. University of Utah. Mamott Library, Special Collections, Williams Papers, ms. 245, box 32, folder 2. who will not go to war with her children 41. "Reapportionment Letter Is Released," Drsrrrt NOVS,1 November 1954; will not author famine or floods "Church Stresses No Stand on Revamp," Salt Lakc Tribune, 2 November 1954. 42. Frank H. Jonas, "Reapportionment in Utah and the Mormon Church." in will not prune the buds of her most promising flowers Proceedings of the Utah Academy of Sciences. Arts and LL'tters, 46(part 1, 1969):26. in some grand apocalypse 43. Personal interview with Utah-based pollster Dan Jones, October 1996. 44. D. Michael Quinn. "The LDS Church's Campaign against the ERA,"]mtrnal will reveal her face at the wedding with the bridegroom of Mormon History, 2O(fall 1994):85. i lust after strange gods

-PAUL SWENSON

PAGE 44 SEPTEMBER 1997 A Mormon woman poet uses scriptural texts to quietly challenge patriarchy and rethink Book of Mormon situations--all in a space wherefaith is allowed room to breathe. PAST AND PRESENT: MARNI ASPLUND-CAMPBELLS POETRY

By Brian Evenson

E ARE TOLD CONSTANTLY IN THE CHURCH Mormon. She recognizes that standard Mormon scriptural in- that we should "apply the scriptures unto our- terpretation, dealing with holy books with a dearth of women selves," learning to make use of their principles in (particularly named women), often limits the way in which wour own lives. I had a seminary teacher once who got so ex- women are encouraged to apply the scriptures. She sets out to cited about applyng the scriptures that he used to read aloud write poetry which, rather than offering generalities, focuses from the Book of Mormon, substituting in the names of his on scriptural events and refocuses them through a female eye: students and constructing imaginary scenarios for us. He tried to dovetail our high school life with, for instance, Nephi cut- EVE SAYS NO ting off Laban's head. Most of the time I ended up more puz- zled than inspired-it raised more questions than it solved- The boys are fighting and I read the newspapers all through college wondering when in the grass again. I would discover that one of my ex-classmates had finally cut off someone's head. Cut it out I yell Applyng the scriptures, unless in a general fashion, ends before you get hurt. up endowing them with qualities and characteristics that tex- They're breathing tually are not present. This is most often sloppily done and too hard leads to our making statements like "Christ would have been a to hear me. 100 percent home teacher, visiting his families once a monthn-statements that encourage a simple, safe obedience One is broad, one is slight. while ignoring what is important about Christ. Or it can also The smaller one comes bleeding lead to an extreme in the other direction, giving the kind of into the house: frenzied readings that the Laffertys employed when they de- Help me, he says, cided to re-institute blood sacrifice. as I touch my tongue But there is a range in which scriptures allow us to rethink to the scrape on his cheek. our lives effectively and in which our lives allow us to rethink Forget it, I say. Go play. the scriptures. It is neither the safe range of the ultra-obedient nor the realm of the heretic but one in which faith is allowed He tears away from me room to breathe, in which we leam from the scriptures and and I quit watching. our lives things which we might not want to know Like Eleanor Wilner's Sarah3 Choice, Mami Asplund- What becomes asserted here, in an oblique retelling of the Cain Campbell's poetry attempts to operate in such a space. She has and Abel story, is the relationship of a mother to her sons. The a more consistently complex and challenging relationship to poem's tension comes from the interaction of the scriptural ac- scriptural application than most other Mormon poets (ex- count with Asplund-Campbell's account of a daily domestic oc- cepting Tim Liu, whose poetry's relationship to the belief is currence-the refiguring of the first murder into terms that we both profound and extremely unsettling). She has recognized are much closer to. The familiarity of the situation, coupled scriptural application as a means of quietly challenpng patri- with its allusion to scripture, does two things: it brings us archy and making us rethink the situations of the Book of nearer to the Cain-Abel story, making us feel it personally from a new perspective, and it allows Eve to speak. BRIAN EVENSON is professor of English at Oklahoma State Uni- It is finally not clear if "Eve Says No" is meant to be a refigu- versity and author of Altmann's Tongue: Stories and a Novella. ration of the climax of the Cain and Abel story or if it is a pic-

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 45 ture of the interaction of the two as children, and this ambi- God. We find, for instance, in a poem originally published in guity seems to me important. Another ambiguity characteristic Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, "Sariah," words on of several of Asplund-Campbell's poems comes in her ability to Sariah's trials in the wilderness and on her silence. "Isabel the bring the mythic scriptural past together with the ordinary day- Harlot" is willing to speak directly for herself and has more to to-day present. Asplund-Campbell creates a space that takes el- say The mother of a stripling wamor misses her son, while ements of scripture and daily life, combining them in a way Captain Moroni's wife is willing to tell us the unspeakable, that makes it difficult to reduce the poem either to scriptural these poems playlng nicely into some of Carol Lynn Pearson's past or living present. Indeed, the success of many of her comments in her recent article on feminism and the Book of poems depends on their ability to make the reader shuttle back Mormon ("Could Feminism Have Saved the Nephites?" and forth between scripture and daily life. We see such an im- SUNSTONE,Mar. 1996). pulse in Asplund-Campbell's "Patient Abish in which an The struggle of these poems is to understand the role of anachronistic bedpan appears as a sort of touchstone to suggest women in the Church, both past and present, and to try to the connection of the poem to contemporary life. carve out a new space for existing. The poems at once reveal Where the technique is clearest, however, is in "mary and and question, acts of faith that are unwilling to be satisfied martha," in which the two women of the Bible seem to have with imitating Sariah's waiting silence. At once subversive and wound up in the contemporary world, with Christ at once faithful, Asplund-Campbell's poetry creates room to live. B Lord and baby as the dishes stack up: MRS. MORONI mary and martha What you don't know I watch her face in the fading room, is that they violated me. how her eyes flick to the window, The soldiers, with their bare skins, aware of strangers, and comprehend Held my hands, tied together, the dishes on the table, with crusts of cereal over my head and tore my skirts. along their rims, sticky cups, the butter melting between us. We can smell The children all watched, the bathwater growing cold, the dull edge lashed to their chairs of tub soap quietly hardening. teased with knives: Crumbs stick to our elbows, hair cropped and a thin line of ants streams across the floor, to the scalp past rubber bands and legos and our bare feet. by so many We sit for hours, just like this, talking stone blades. and waiting for some answers, abandoned as we are by daylight. ONE OF TWO THOUSAND WARRIOR'S MOTHERS And you, my Lord, are the child sleeping in my bed, When I saw that I had a son your breath sweet I thought-for so long 1 have been both man and woman. with the day's milk, your eyes dusted Of course he was worth five daughters. with salt from the tears His father lifted him, still steaming, I let you cry high, by the neck and ankles all alone in the dark room. so that his head limped sideways, You upbraid me and the boyhood proudly showed. with your sorrow, and I can only offer I taught him, when I could, a warm embrace to love the God who made him as penitence, holding you close I told him, to my tired, tired heart. as he left, to remember the woman who bore him The effect of the shuttling back and forth in time is very pow- in birth and in her heart, erful, each context transforming the other. Concomitant to this as he camed out the work of death. project is Asplund-Campbell's attempt to provide voices for women who in the scriptures are nearly silent, women whose He was like rain to me. I bend to the earth lives are often worn out in service but who capture glimpses of weighed down by joy

PAGE 46 SEPTEMBER 1997 PATIENT ABISH

He falters when he breathes. She's not Abraham's Sara, He waits for the bedpan. who laughs and talks He lets a drop slide from the comer to angels of his mouth to his chin as if the state of her womb before he rubs it away were the daily news. Lehi's Sariah just murmurs and waits. He calls me dear daughter, dear, patient daughter. In Jerusalem, she sifts Dear present daughter, through the pieces of her life: all that remains. the linen she wove for her wedding, which was sturdy and coarse, He still needs attention and now is smooth velvet from scrubbing. After a long night Gold earrings from together. Laman's birth-they are He prates endlessly; almost too heavy to wear, but soft, and rich. An angel came to me in this very room and spoke without tongue, without gesture. She packs green figs, wine, Once I saw bread, ties two goats, worlds beyond earth, life beyond death and in her pocket Joy past feeling. Once I knew God. a silk bag of ginseng, for there will be children, long, painful labors. ISABEL THE HARLOT She stays silent, drawing together only these simplest things. I should have learned by now to taste pleasure carefully, In the wilderness she thinks To wait for those soft moans of that sons can be testaments, penitence, or agony, or dutiful regret, and children bear the language before thinking my job was done. in their blood, the record from their mothers, But a missionary wastes no time. and that nations dwindle only Despising his passion he strikes it when they are split open, again, and again, harshly, hoarsely the words soaking red into the sand. I did enjoy his love. She attends her own birth, He even asked me to pray as he folded a small son who comes reluctantly his clean, white clothes, while she pulls on a rope she has tied which I did, between the tent poles, propped on one bare arm, hair baring her teeth. falling over my shoulder, I prayed for my naked soul; So silent are God's visions and I received my answer that he must know Sariah, she assumes. when I saw in a flash of terrible light He will speak to her when he chooses, the Word resting in his open mouth, and she will wait, saying nothing. head back, eyes closed, pure and sanctified.

I said, "I will not be your thorn," but he was gone, a pile of coins on the table.

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 47

------FROM THE CAMPUS "They just kept filing through the door;" Wahlquist says afterwards. "I think most of them will come back." The meeting introduced prospective staff vol- STUDENT REVIEW AND BYU: unteers to the independent magminek ten-year publishing legacy-one of survival despite SR's OVERTEN YEARS OF UN-OFFICIALPRESS off-campus status-and also to the current d$i- culties its staff faces: While eighteen thowand (ANDOFFICIAL RESISTANCE) IN PROVO students and faculty read over ten thousand weekly copies in the early 1990s, in recent years the magazine's circulation has taken a downward spiral. Financial difficulties have forced erratic By Bryan Wateman production since 1994 when the staff moved out of its long-time office space above the old worn- en's gym on University Avenue. But publisher Wahlquist, editors Mara Ashby and Amy Leaver; and the new staff members they hope they've picked up tonight, plan to light Student Review's way (to borrow a phrasefrom a current Bnicap- ital campaign) into the twenty-first century.

In fact, 1 did start a news story for SUNSTONE that way, but I couldn't get much further. I found myself writing what I hoped had happened as much as of what I was sure, and I simply can't write dispassionately about Student Review. For three years, that magazine was the center of my life and largely why I stayed at BW instead of transferring somewhere less intellectually hostile. I served as its editor and publisher (along with Rachel Poulsen) during some very diflicult times for BW-the summer of 1993 in particular, when the firings of Cecilia Konchar Farr and David Knowlton set off a landslide of depar- tures and dismissals that still shows no sign of slowing. That summer also began difficult times for SR. The magazine had survived communitv resistance td its anti-Gulf War articles, and it had even recovered into a time BYU PRESIDENT REX LEE HOLDING UP STUDENT REVIEW of plenty in 1991 and 1992. But within a BYU'S unofficial student paper has crossed the ten-year threshold year of the faculty firings, staff participation decreased, advertisers fell away, and the orga- in its coexistence with the official BYu forums. nization deteriorated. At no point has SR actually folded, although it5 come close. F I WERE to write a news story for an eclectic handful of students crowded into the Perhaps out of guilt (had my editorial judg- SUNSTONE about Student Review, the in- atrium of the Brimhall Design Building. Of the ments contributed to the Review's decline?). I dependent student magazine at Brigham thirty or forty students here, only a few have perhaps out of the intense sense of commu- Young University, it would start something been to a Student Review meeting before. Some nity I felt last summer when thirty or forty like this: may not come back. But current publisher Taryn former staff members met for a ten-year re- Wahlquist, a senior English major; is ecstatic at union, I wanted to tell SR5 story, in no small IT'S TUESDAY NIGHT at BW,three hours the turnout for this winter semester recruitment part to generate support for the current since thejlag was lowered to the evening broad- meeting. In close to a year of participation with group of students plugging away in Provo, cast recording of the national anthem. The SR, she's never seen more thanfifteen people at proving that independent thought can still campus is snow-covered and hushed, except for one of the magazine's weekly staff meetings. squeak by at BW. I asked several former staff members for their stories about SR, and what follows largely relies on their accounts. BRYAN WATERMAN, a former Student Review editor and publisher and an associate editor of SUNSTONES editors were right to suggest I SUNSTONE, is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at Boston University. He is currently com- write a column instead of feature news: uro- pleting, with former SUNSTONE managing editor Brian Kagel, a book on academic freedom contro- paganda usually works better when it5 un- versies at Brigham Young University. abashed.

PAGE 48 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE

memory. "They slimed us," he says, "but the backstabbing gave us the extra motivation to SUnndermU Weafiew %..*.- .,--., ," - -,, ,- The initial idea, most founders agree, was to provide an open student forum that was available nowhere else on campus, especially at the Daily Universe, which reserved its editorial pages for its own staff members. Even crusading as mainstream could not keep the Review free from perilous associations: administrators and others constantly made reference to the defunct Seventh East Press, the independent student paper that earlier in the decade went down in flames over controversial articles on homosexuality at BYU and an infamous interview with Mormon maverick Sterling McMunin. The Press had depended largely on campus support-through adver- I I tising and sales in the BYU bookstore-and First issue of Student Review when the university pulled those resources Halloween issue the paper was unable to cope. "The Seventh A TALE OF THREE PAPERS East Press certainly inspired us," remembers OFFICIAL DISTANCES: OFF CAMPUS The Review, the Daily Universe, Leishman. "But its brooding cultural pres- Problems with the "groundscrew"and and the Seventh East Press. ence was also very real. Our editorial and dangers in the dorms. business plans were obviously shaped by the TUDENT REVIEW was born in 1986 granite contours left from that era." The uni- OPULARIIY soared with many stu- out of dissatisfaction with BYU'S official versity decided not to allow Student Rmew to dents, but enemies were lurking in the Spublications. The nucleus of SR's distribute on campus, largely because of the Pwaters-near the botany ponds south founding staff worked for Insight, the Honors controversial demise of its predecessor. The of campus, to be exact. Because the Review Program's student journal. Bill Kelly, who staff's own move to distance itself from the was not allowed to distribute on campus, its was the Review's first publisher and is now a Press included eliminating almost all reli- staff purchased old newsstands that they Portland businessman, recalls that students gous issues. "There was no religion section. used to dot BYU's borders. Students coming were frustrated by Insight's limited input and in large part because Seventh East Press stood and going were free to take the papers on appeal. The students were also irked that the as a reminder of what happened if you stirred campus or to their homes. But Review alumni campus newspaper, the Daily Universe, of- that pot," says SR alumnus Greg Matis, now a from all eras report having to retrieve large fered no experience to non-journalism stu- Salt Lake lawyer. Also with the Press in mind, stacks of papers from nearby trash cans. A dents. One of the Insight staffers, Brian (BJ) the Review adopted an absolute taboo on the more serious challenge came in early 1990 Fogg, eventually took action, plastering subject of homosexuality when the campus grounds crew stole over campus with fliers asking "Tired of the To a large degree, the strategy worked. one thousand copies and carted them to a Universe?" and announcing a meeting to or- Although its "unofficial" nature probably campus recycling facility Luckily, a Review ganize an alternative student forum. drove some readers away, the Review was able reader witnessed the theft and called staff Although sixty or seventy students showed on some issues to side-rightly and right- members. The following week SR published up at the appointed time, Kelly notes, most eously-with a majority of the students. For a photo of the stolen issues with a caption ex- left when the question of finances arose. example, during one of the Review's first se- posing the incident. From then on, the Though the cluster of students who re- mesters, as Bill Kelly recalls, the adrninistra- Review used the single (and ambiguous) mained brought out their first issue that fall, tion wanted to require approved housing word "groundscrew" for physical plant em- Review lore holds that the issue was funded apartments to hire resident assistants who ployees: "When questioned, groundscrew of- using Kelly's mother's Visa card. would police university standards compli- ficials said they were doing SR a favor by The new publication, subtitled "Bw's Un- ance off-campus as they did in on-campus removing old issues." Official Magazine," initially targeted official dorms: "We decided to oppose it, and sup- The Review's limited distribution has al- support. "We met with the [College 04 ported a meeting [on-campus] in the ways prevented it from reaching a large sec- Humanities Dean and with a university VP, Wilkinson Center's 'living room' where we at- tion of the campus population: dorm showing what a good idea SR would be," says tracted probably 300-plus students. Roger residents. Living adjacent to campus, dorm Roger Leishman, the Review's first editor and Leishman had the crowd roaring in approval. dwellers sometimes never pass SR stands. now a gay rights lawyer for the ACLU in He started with, 'Hi, I'm Roger Leishman, ed- Review staffers have sought ways to remedy Chicago. The founders had "sterling reputa- itor of Student Review.' The cheer was deaf- this problem, from sneaking stacks into tions"-Leishman had recently spoken at ening. That was the first time I really realized dorms to throwing unopened bales from undergraduate commencement as valedicto- that we were having an effect on BW." pickup trucks to waiting students near resi- rian-but the administration made "clear ef- dence halls. (My first encounter with the forts to eliminate the possibility of SR before Review, incidentally, came when I was a first- it got started." Leishman laughs at the year student: I was crossing between

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 49 Heritage Halls and the Hanis Fine Arts ficially to meet and to post fliers on campus, member foragng the Academy our second Center when I met Review staffpeople ille- if not officially distribute the magazine there. semester," says Fog. "It was exciting gally distributing issues. Campus police Armstrong sent a letter to President Lee roaming around in the dark-especially chased them away while I watched in admi- asking him to back them in this effort. Lee re- since the building had been rumored in our ration, determined to learn more about the sponded by "saying that BYU would be worse own publication to be the location of choice illicit publication.) off without Student Review," Armstrong says, for local witchery. We snagged chairs and Off-campus distribution raised trouble- "but he insisted that it was in our interest and stuff, but the layout table was the true find. some issues for BYU'S claim to be a university the university's interest that SR not come We had to throw it out a second story when it so obviously worked against free ex- under the university's control-which is window to get it out of the building, and it pression and independent inquiry. "Walking what he assumed would happen if he were to broke in half as it landed. Getting it into the past the SR stand at the bottom of Maeser condone on-campus distribution." Instead, new [second floor] office space [across the Hill always gave me a twinge of anger," re- the administration soon announced a policy street] involved a trickier strategy-we used calls former editor and publisher John against campus organizations' and depart- strong undergrads and ropes to get it through Armstrong, now a Ph.D. candidate in philos- ments' advertising in the Review. In 1992, the window and into the offices." ophy at the University of Arizona. "I sensed a Snow asked the Review to remove its subtitle, deep tension between the goals of an institu- "BYU's Un-Official Magazine" from its mast- tion of higher learning and that institution's head, claiming that even an "unofficial" use treatment of able and talented students in- of the acronym violated the university's rights spired by those goals." Armstrong on occa- to its name. ELVIS'S LOVE CHILD FOUND LIVING IN OK I sion confronted university president Rex Lee The Review's off-campus status has cer- on the issue at Lee's question and answer ses- tainly provided most of its financial chal- sions with students. (On one such occasion, lenges. But it's also given staff members the Lee apparently anticipated Armstrong's pres- siege mentality necessary to make an inde- ence; he pulled from his briefcase a copy of pendent publication work. Even providing the Review and said he had just picked one office space and production equipment- up that morning. Unfortunately for Lee, a luxuries campus-supported publications photographer in the audience caught the ges- take for granted-has brought unexpected ture on film. The Review reprinted it for years surprises. For most of the Review's history, its as a "celebrity endorsement.") Armstrong offices were housed in the old women's gym also met in 1990 with administrators-in- across from the dilapidated Brigham Young cluding university provost Bruce Hafen and Academy buildings and upstairs from the vice president for student life R. J. Snow-in CTR thrift shop. BJ Fog recalls that the old an attempt to gain official club status for the Academy buildings provided the staff with magazine's staff, which would allow them of- much-needed production supplies. "I re-

Student Enquirer

AN "SR CULTURE" "Hands across the Cougareat"; on-campus sleep-0vers;finding like-minds.

ROM its beginnings SR has nurtured a distinct culture for its participants-a F needed alternative to the usual Provo fare. But that culture did not always carry connotations of liberal politics and religion. "In my time, the Review was less overtly political than say in 1991 [during the Gulf War]," remembers Gary Burgess, now a junior faculty member in BYU'shistory department. "We decided to have a demonstration on campus, called 'Hands across the Campus1-in protest of what? we had no idea. Eventually it was reduced to 'Hands across the Cougareat': a few of us held hands while someone read a nonsensical speech from the balcony on the glorious mission of SR at BYU.Our presence aroused no concern "There's not a shadow ofa difference between these two or interest: perhaps the greatest anti-demon- political candidates-they're both non-Mormons." stration in SR's history."

PAGE 50 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE

N Every now and then we'd get a letter that said. . . 4 was just about to leave this God-forsaken campus for good when I stumbled upon your paper.'" -Matthew Workman

Matthew Workman, long-time humor of Mormonism I feel good about. SR also put Joanna Brooks that SR needed more conserv- columnist for the Review, summarizes SR cul- me into meaningful contact with some of the ative writing and she replied that finding ture: "Every organization must be judged by best faculty I met at BW. It helped my BYU well-written conservative pieces was one of its fruits. SR allowed a high school flunk-out experience become something approaching her hardest jobs. But without that overall bal- like me to get busted by campus cops and the college experience for which I thought I'd ance, SR alienated much of the BYU popula- kiss several Benson scholars in the same signed up." tion." SR's shift to the left certainly affected evening." Workman alludes to events I also advertising revenue. Over the years SR has witnessed. One night, desperate for some- lost several ad contracts over content issues, thing to do in such a sleepy town, we de- from things as small as the phrase "pissed- cided to hide out under the Nelke Theater off' to anti-Gulf War articles to more recent stage on campus-with nothing more scan- controversies concerning Mother in Heaven dalous in mind than a few rounds of Boggle. STUDENT REVIEW and an anonymous article describing life as a .-.--.-a,r. rra -re- -q I.,",, A few hours into our stunt, a security guard BYU lesbian. opened the trap door that concealed our Former publisher Russell Fox, now a po- hideaway He yelled down for us to come up, litical science Ph.D. student at Catholic assuming the first two to emerge were a ro- University of America, sees things differently. mantic couple trysting the night away. When When he joined the staff as a freshman he saw the whole bunch of us emerge he during the Review's second year, the editor started to call the police. We convinced him told him "how great it was to have a conserv- we were a Family Home Evening group. ative voice at SR, because they were so hard Later that night, we crammed into an editor's to find. In other words, soliciting members of living room and played spin the bottle, the conservative majority to write for an un- having run out of better ideas. Apparently official publication was a problem from the this provided Workman with the opportu- start." SR-prone conservatives, Fox main- nity for his intellectual stimulation. Overall, tains, are people "who want to distinguish Workman surmises, "I think we made life at themselves from the crowd even though they BYU just a little more livable. Every now and agree with the crowd on most things," and thei we'd get a letter that said sohething to these people "will probably always be rare." the effect of, 'I was just about to leave this War issue Fox also points-and I think rightly-to a God-forsaken campus for good when I stum- problem SR shares with other publications in bled upon your paper. It made me laugh out EDITORIAL NEUTRALITY/ the independent Mormon sector: "An open loud. Any school that can harbor a bunch of KILLING THE MESSENGER forum," he believes, "is a forum with an weirdoes like you can't be all bad. I decided The perils of not taking stances; agenda. By saying 'open forum' you claim to stay' I think that's a good thing." The GulfWar; Homosexuality. that other forums are not quite as open, that Not all Review contributors. Workman you want to be able to say something dif- notes, are pointy-headed leftists. The Reviewk HE Review has always maintained ferent than what you hear from those other, most-remembered offerings are the yearly that it takes no official political not-quite-as-open-forums." satirical special issues-The Student Enquirer T stances, but its tone and content, But Fox still concedes-and I think most and The Daily Unifarce. Typical humorous ar- many people claim, has over the years people would-SR's increased willingness to ticles from either issue might involve Taco slipped more and more to the left. Part of the tackle topics the original staff had considered salad scandals in the Cougareat (do friends shift was format-oriented. While the taboo brought trouble. A new religon page overstuff salads for friends?) or fake news ar- founders initially intended the Review to be in 1989 led to many of the magazine's more ticles about the Cougarette squadk secret in part a traditional newspaper, after the first controversial pieces. But the two issues that identity as bodyguards for general authorities four years the front-page news format was re- drove the deepest wedges between the (their hyper-hairsprayed hair deflects bul- placed by a more opinion-oriented magazine Review and its potential readers were the Gulf lets). style. Former staffers debate how much the War and the increasing prominence (paral- For many staff members, though, the current magazine has departed from its ori- leled in the larger society) of gay issues. Review culture was a place to cultivate inter- gins. Sterling Augustine, who oversaw design During the Gulf War, many Review staffers esting friendships. Andrew Christensen, a and production in the late-'80s and early- were anti-war activists, and while the maga- former Review publisher, explains: "It thrust '90s, sees the changes as sharp, and as the zine printed both pro- and anti-war articles, me into association with far more interesting source of the Review's current hardships: "I protesters were dominant. Two issues in people than the others I'd managed to hang suspect a great deal of the reason SR has de- February 1991 were especially controversial: out with since the end of my mission. Those clined," he says, "is that it stopped being bal- One article criticized a local dance club- people in various ways personified the flavor anced. I once told [editor and publisher] The Palace-for sponsoring a "Kick Saddam

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 5 1 SUNSTONE

'7 sensed a deep tension between . . . [BYU's] goals. . . and that institution's treatment of some of its most able and talented students who were inspired by those goals." -John Armstrong

Hussein's Butt Night." The Palace, it turned Konchar Farr, and David Knowlton. When without exception promoting tolerance if not out, was a long-time Review advertiser. It Stannard the following year predicted Bush's outright social and theological change-al- promptly canceled its ad account. In SR's defeat (arguing that Americans no longer ways drew critical response from students. controversial "Action-Packed War Issue" a cared about the Gulf War victory) the unpop- As an editor in this period I received letters week later, the magazine's opinion editor, ular-albeit prophetic-opinion helped and calls from past SR editors and publishers Matt Stannard, wrote: "I can't remember an drive the wedge between the Review and the asking us to set the divisive subject aside. For issue so divisive and emotionally gripping as strongly pro-Bush campus. whatever reason, we couldn't: even the Daily the war in the Near East. It has divided the Although articles on feminism-and Universe devoted space to gay issues, which political, academic, and spiritual commu- abortion in particular-caused campus flare- led in part to the Universe being the conserv- nity" at BYU.The war divided SR's internal ups, the more enduring controversial ative counterpart to the Review. As conserva- community as well. That semester some staff topic-the one often pointed to when de- tive voices increasingly found a forum in the members-including its publisher-left, scribing SR's unmistakable shift to the left- official university newspaper, to some de- citing the Review's apparent one-sidedness on was homosexuality In 1990, the staff threw gree, I suppose, they no longer needed or the war issue as a reason for their departure. aside the magazine's taboos and published its wanted the Review. The war helped set SR's image as being "What?!? Homosexuality HERE at BYU!?!" counter to the BYU mainstream-activist staff issue, which explored the topic from a va- members sometimes carried issues of the riety of religious and social perspectives. Review to protests on campus and in Salt Over the next four years gay issues took up Lake. The Review helped promote a campus much space in the Review-perhaps because teach-in on the war with speakers such as the Review had become a semi-safe space for Eugene England, Hugh Nibley, Cecilia gay students themselves. Such articles-

.""., ,mr." -.. .-.. ".",>.. l.L .-.. -- . . a I__ I..I n .,-. ".I,. -n. -I- , ( Faculty issue

RECENT DIFFICULTIES Polarization on campw; Honors officially bans SR; SR goes homeless.

ENSION between the Review and popular BYU culture is not limited, of T course, to only a few problematic issues. Such conflicts represent a wider distance between the magazine's typically left-leaning writers and its typically right- wing potential readers. The rift between left and right has deepened in recent years, fu- eled most significantly by academic freedom "I'm not a very charitable person, butfortunately Rachel is, issues. In the wake of the Farr-Knowlton firings, the Houston and Evenson cases, the in- and in this church we believe in proxy work. " creased visibility of the campus chapter of

PAGE 52 SEPTEMBER 1997 the American Association of University again a small-circulation magazine, known to lication schedule has been more erratic than Professors (and the national AAUP's investi- only a limited portion of 'the campus popula- the traditional weekly, the issues they've pro- gation of BYU),and increased authoritari- tion, waiting again for good times to help duced have been first-rate. A recent on-line anism in the university's responses to these swing- it into good- favor. fund-raiser relieved them of most of the debt situations, it's hard to sound an independent that forced the staff three years ago from SR's voice in Provo without "independent" being offices. Against all odds, Wahlquist and her read as "anti-Mormon" by reactionary stu- recent successors maintained a staff during dents and authorities. The mere willingness SR's bleakest period and constantly worked to discuss certain topics makes the Review -1 to overhaul the Review's image.- "At first I anathema to many BYU students. "Reading tried to be everything to everybody and the paper in graduate school in 1992," says create an everybody's forum," she says. In the Gary Burgess, "gave me the impression that September 1996 issue, she editorialized that editorial decisions were being made with dif- BYU President Bateman's alleged plagarism ferent values in mind than in the 1980s," had "made a mockery of academic integrity." when Student Review aimed to be a majority But in the same issue she published another voice. This may be true. But Bm has seen student's defense of Gail Houston's firing- several cultural and intellectual upheavals an article that argued that feminism has no since then. It's hard for me to imagine the place in the Church. "I felt like SR was acting Review not being partially at odds with the as a true open forum," she recalls. But when dominant culture and a repressive adminis- she met with a faculty member who sits on tration. the Review's board of trustees, "he said that Part of my pessimism stems from an im- we were making enemies on both sides. The portant shift I witnessed in the Review's rela- conservatives were pissed-off about the tionship to BYU during my last year in Provo. Bateman article and the liberals were disap- In 1993-94, the new officials in the universi- pointed in the defense of the Houston firing. ty's Honors Program ordered Review staffers We alienated everyone." Last year Wahlquist to discontinue its long-standing use of the Tenth anniversary issue also met the challenge of ad revenue head-on Maeser Honors Building for its weekly staff by signing up the new independent LDs uni- meetings. In many ways, the Maeser Building INDEPENDENT AND OPTIMISTIC versity, Southern Virginia College, to finance had served as the Review's only sense of be- Debt-free, but still struggling, SR beats the odds a special issue dedicated to the school's inau- longing-its only home-on BYU'S campus. by its survival. guration. The line between free press and Honors deans from previous administrations corporate sell-out was admittedly tricky, but had been friendly to SR and had published ND, finally, good times are what given the situation, Wahlquist felt she made articles and interviews. Honors students Student Review staff members hope the right call. "We had declared ourselves of- comprised much of SR's staff, and, following A are on the horizon. While their pub- ficially not dead. We'd done it." its founders' example, SR provided the official Honors publication, Insight, with a majority of its editorial staff. Honors Dean Paul Cox defended, in a letter to SUNSTONE, his decision to refuse the Review its only campus sanctuary by arguing that he also refused Maeser space to other groups, such as the conservative Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS). But FARMS is well-endowed and maintains official space elsewhere on campus. To ask FARMS to hold its board meetings elsewhere is hardly the same as taking from SR its only connection to campus. Since its departure from the Maeser Building, SR has held staff meetings in another building nearby, but the connection to what was the heart of BW's intellectual life remains severed. Another removal for SR took place later in 1994, when the publication was forced for financial reasons to vacate its office space in the old women's gym. Since then the publication has been housed in staff members' apartments and production has taken place "She5 home, but sheS had a lot to eat and sheS sleeping. illicitly in various campus locations. At the end of its first decade, SR has become once Maybe you could come back a little lutes"

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 53 While current staff transitions, the uncer- offer the rest of US but are too afraid to speak. May it see many, many more. EZ tain prospects of fall recruitment, and a fragile I wonder how many of them have thoughtful, ad base still threaten the Review's survival, it enriching insights that don't necessarily mesh Subscriptions to Student Review are available seems likely that at least a small portion of with the norm, and who feel unable to ex- for $15 (one year) by writing to PO Box 221 7; BYU'S students will continue to need an open press themselves safely Student Review strives Provo, UT, 84603. The Review also welcomes forum. "Sometimes I look around my classes," to offer these people a safe environment in taw-deductible donations to The Foundationfor Wahlquist says, "and wonder how many of which they can say what they need to say" Student Thought, its non-profit parent corpora- these people have something important to That's what it's been doing for over ten years. tion since 1986.

LEAVING ALCATRAZ Pewter air and hush of mist in San Francisco Bay- an island lighthouse overshadowed by concrete walls- I clutch the straps of purse, umbrella, lapels of my jacket. Slender French sailors pepper the island navy-blue. I catch their nasal intonations: 1faitfroid. Their narrow castle of ship grays across the harbor. Somewhere in the past I felt this grayness. Yes, cheating from a sheet inside a wooden lid of desk, then the crucible of a teacher's eyes in my darkened heart. From Alcatraz, The Rock, a park sign slides past like a decoy: prisoners' dummy heads discovered propped on bunks while they chisel through dank cement to slip into salt water fathoms deep. Darkness in D Block: cells for solitary where I crouch, imagining someone tossing a penny then crawling to find it, tossing again, over and over for days. No copper color shining in the blackness. I know how light looks after many days- lying to my parents about the broken eggs against the barn door, daring finally to tell them, whispering again the dictum, Be merciful unto me, a sinner. Few visitors here. A sister comes, waiting at the window, trying not to focus on the bars. She barely recognizes her brother-memory like a strong current flows back toward the bay I retrace my way to the city, the crowded elevator rising up until I see all from where I came, recognize the strangers in the cubicle, faces of a distant knowing. -ANITA TANNER

PAGE 54 SEPTEMBER 1997 CYBERSAINTS the piece was circulating in Hawaii. Then came reports that it had been discussed at a gay Mormon support group in San Francisco. Four weeks later, it appeared on a

ACCIDENTALAUTHOR OF AN generaldiscussion (non-~ormon) on gay rights. internetThen it appearedlist for the on a list for education and schools and on a list INTERNETLEGEND in Australia. Six weeks after the original post, it was still alive and appeared in a legal-issues internet discussion group. What does it mean when an intentionalfictional satire is I know about each of these instances be- believed and spread as afactual event? cause somebody from my original e-mail group reported them to me-and also sent corrections to those lists where the "Farmer By Cherie Woodworth in the Dell" had resurfaced. But internet gossip flies on wings of lightning: you cannot call it back. "The Farmer" keeps spreading. In April, it jumped out of cyber space. The editor of a Salt Lake biweekly culture and events newspaper, the Event, got a copy. He knew it was a spoof-and he wanted to print it. He tracked me down on e-mail, through a friend of a friend of a friend of a. . . (is the Mormon cyber world really that small?) and asked my permission. What the heck, I thought. It can't make any difference now. Only please, I begged him, change the story from the Brigham City school district to something else. I don't want the poor souls of Brigham City (whom I had picked at random, or on maleficent inspiration) to get harassed about this. So the "Farmer in the Dell" was printed in the 24 April issue of the Event, coinciding with Ellen's coming-out on national television. The next morning, it ended up on radio. During the Thursday morning com- mute, Tom Barberi, host of KALL talk radio, retold the piece, making it a subject of his morning rant and broadcasting it from NOW CONFESS to the world: The les- Now, I will staunchly defend myself: I did Ogden to Utah Valley He, too, took it for a bian "Farmer in the Dell" did not not intend to deceive anybody I signed my real news report. At least three members of I happen. Possessed by an evil demon one own name to the piece, and I posted it under my original ;-mail group heard the broad- morning in mid-March 1997, I wrote the my own e-mail address. Even those on the e- cast, and one rushed to the phone to set the story in the guise of a news release and sent it mail list who don't know me personally record straight. It's not real! It never hap- to my friends on e-mail (see side bar on next would surely realize that if I live in pened! And then the messenger of truth got page). Within two hours, I had a half-dozen Connecticut, I could hardly have made a le- on the internet pronto and posted me: responses congratulating me on a well-aimed gitimate report about a school district in You've got to call the radio station and tell satire. And another half dozen posts be- small-town Utah. Anybody who read to the them it's a fake! The long and the short of it wailing the state of American society "This is last line surely would know that it couldn't is. I did talk to Tom Barberi from outrageous!" they cried. "How could such a be true. Right? Connecticut, on the air, and bore testimony thing happen?" Within half a day my official retraction that the piece was a satire. They had taken it for true. had been posted to my e-mail list, fast on the Thus, anybody who heard it falsely heels of the original. Alas, the internet legend broadcast as truth also heard the truth re- CHERIE WOODWORTH is a graduate student was already up and running. Mormon gossip stored; that is, they did if they stayed tuned in history at Yale University currently living in spreads fast on the internet, and somebody that long. . . . Estonia. Anyone with further sightings of the (or several somebodies) believing in the ve- In June, the story is still making the Farmer in the Dell is encouraged to send a report racity of the story had already sent it on to rounds. Just last week, I got news that it had to her at [email protected]. other news groups. Within days, I heard that been going around Jet Propulsion Labs in

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 55 Pasadena, this time clearly labeled as a spoof A STRANGE PHENOMENON their points may be more obscure. The (thank goodness). But a gay newspaper in When play and reality are indistinguishable. telling questions are, Why is a story retold?, San Francisco recently ran an account of the Why do even skeptical listeners feel that it tale as straight news. AN Brunvand, folklorist at the is-or maybe just might be-true? and The piece seems most effective when University of Utah and creator of the What does the honing and re-shaping of the taken as true, at least up to the last para- concept of urban legends, writes that it story in the repeated tellings tell us about our graph. Judging from the feedback (frag- J is not possible to deliberately create an values, fears, and stresses? mentary and accidental) I've received, urban legend. An urban legend is a story be- As the lesbian "Farmer in the Dell" began people may read it and be amused when lieved to be true (or at least plausible) and to spread out of control, I asked myself these they know from the beginning that it is a spread primarily by oral retelling. Urban leg- questions. I do not think the story qualifies joke. But when they believe it to be true, ends arise from social concerns and stresses as an urban legend; to do so, it would have to they are outraged and impelled to pass it which lie under the surface. The retold sto- go beyond e-mail, where the story can be on. ries may have easily identifiable morals, or sent across the country to dozens or hun-

FUROR ERUPTS IN the school Board and the city Renee ~otttestified to the com- council, over 200 parents and bined school board and town BRIGHAM CITY SCHOOLS others showed up to voice con- council that the situation had cems, and petitions were sub- come about entirely innocently, This is the text of the unintended hoax that has been mitted with hundreds ofnames. her explanation was met with circulated widely by credulous internet users. Does its "Somebody told us about pronounced skepticism. continual forwarding constitute folklore? And what does the this in Relief Society last "I just wanted all the chil- incident tell us about ourselves? Sunday," said Filene Dunnbody, dren to have a turn," she con- refemng to the Mormon wom- cluded, visibly shaken. en's weekly church meeting. "I don't care how 'innocent' A.P. (BRIGHAMCITY, UTAH)- the circle as the "farmer's wife." "We started the petition right this thing started," responded The Brigham City School Board "This is just setting a bad ex- then and there. We just knew LeClare Moffatt, speaking for met in an emergency session ample to our young and im- we had to take action; we were the combined council. "If not yesterday with the city council pressionable children," said all so mad about those poor all the students get a turn, that's to consider allegations that the Jared Day, whose child is in the little children. After we got just too bad. There are more school district's youngest class. "If you don't stand up for everyone in Relief Society to important issues at stake here." charges were being inculcated family values, this country is sign, we took it over to the "The farmer has to be a boy," with a pro-gay ideology and going to go right down the men's quorums and they were concurred Mayor Tom Memll. same-sex marriage. toilet." glad to sign on too. Even some "A boy gets picked first. That's The issue arose after scores "It's upsetting the natural of the youth signed." the way we always played the of parents complained that chil- order of things," concurred Lisa It was rumored that game, and that's the way it dren in the kindergarten class at Perkins, "and it's upsetting me, Mormon churches in neigh- should be played. You might as Brigham Elementary were being too." "It's like dragging those in- boring towns were gearing up well get used to it." led in a game which mimicked nocent children down into a to bus in hundreds more par- The extraordinary joint ses- same-sex marriages. At issue ditch. It's an outrage that we ents to the next School Board sion of parents and school was the game "The Farmer in can't protect our own children meeting, should the issue not board dismissed after reaching a the Dell." from that sort of filth," said her find an immediate resolution. tentative solution. Regardless of Renee Mott, the accused husband, Wayne Perkins. Parents in Brigham City class sex ratios, boys would be kindergarten teacher, ex- "I know these things may have organized an action com- picked first. However, in the in- plained: "The class is way over- happen in other places," said mittee, and have stated that terest of fairness, the position of balanced with girls. I mean, we Janabell Millett. "But this is they will sue the school board "the Cheese" would be reserved have lots more girls than boys. Brigham City We can't let that and the kindergarten teacher for a girl. At the end of the Sometimes it just happens that kind of pollution into our town. personally for psychic damage game, the children sing "the way, it5 just chance. So when And into the kindergarten, no to their children. They have Cheese stands alone, the cheese we play 'Farmer in the Dell,' less!" asked a BYU Law School pro- stands alone. Hi ho the dairy-0, sometimes I let a girl go first, so The extent of the furor over fessor to represent them in the the cheese stands alone." that everybody gets a turn." this issue can be gauged by the case, and have already drafted a "That should be enough to The problem arises with the number of town citizens who law for the State legislature make anyone happy," con- next line of the children's song: have got involved-far more which would ban all play acting cluded school board president "the farmer takes a wife." The than just the parents of students of same-sex maniage in the Jack Peterson. grl-farmer would often choose in the kindergarten class. At the public schools. C. K. Woodworth, another little girl to join her in extraordinary joint session of When kindergarten teacher A.P. remote correspondent

PAGE 56 SEPTEMBER 1997

- -- - - SUNSTONE

dreds of potential readers by a few, quick, key strokes and always in the same textual form. In my opinion, to be an urban legend, it would have to be retold orally in face-to- face encounters and in the teller's own words. The broadcast on KALL radio almost qualifies as such (since the radio host did retell the story rather than read the original, and he PHOTOGRAPH: did believe it to be true), but I do not know if any listeners picked up the story and then re- ELLIS ISLAND, 1949 told it. Of course, such propagation would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to We came off the ship trace (unlike e-mail, which is difficult from lands with shifting names, enough). our borders undefined and mixed Why did the story spread? I can only in the thick syrup of Slavic sounds. guess. First and most important, it not only Our clothes turned awkward and coarse. came in the guise of a factual news report The worst were the trousers, (and for the verisimilitude of the satire, I always too low over the rough shoes tried to closely imitate the rhetoric of real or too wide at the ankles, news stories), but it also fit within a plausible and the women in dark woolen skirts. context. Several events in the Mountain West We were foreigners, in recent years had concerned gay rights, schools had already been a hot issue, and the sharp odors of food on our breath, Church had become involved in the Hawaii with our strong teeth gay-marriage case. As one discussant at the and sullen, hopeful stares, Mormon gay support group in San Francisco full of stories sticking in our throats. said, people were waiting for something to We broke open like thinly strapped suitcases, happen in Utah. all our secrets obvious I have also noticed in recent trips to Utah in the dark splinters of our faces- a heightened concern among mainstream like the faded keepsakes Mormons that even young children identify protruding from our bags. themselves with gendered behavior. Girls How could anything enter should be grls, and boys should be boys, through the doors of our difference? even from their pre-school years, lest they become confused and be open to the homo- Sleeves flapping in endless lines, sexual recruitment that is rumored to target we waited in front of crates and old valises, adolescents and young adults. monuments to the patience Finally, the "Farmer" piece reflected some of those without choice, of my own frustration with the place of poked in our nakedness women in Mormon society Many women and probed for strange infections like me hear the message that they are to in the dense layers of our flesh. have a special role but are not convinced that We stood like dwindling puppets it is a role they necessarily want. Being the dragged across the sea, Cheese in the story is not the pinnacle of ful- our tongues dry and cut fillment for everyone. with the silent traces of soft speech, In any case, the spread of the story took me completely by surprise. I wrote it unable to state what we knew without forethought. But when I re-exam- How we longed to live in a present ined the piece, I saw in it things I had not filled with familiar words realized. In creating the fictitious parents, in a land we had read about in books, school board members, and mayor, placing losing our singularity them in an invented situation, and putting in the spilled pockets of our coats. words in their mouths, I was playlng with If someone had snapped reality But these two elements-play and a picture of us then, reality-were lost in the transmission, and what would it have shown? the real story never seemed to catch up with Shoulders rigid, heads inclined, the false one. mouths shut and curving tightly As they say in Plan lofrom Outer Space: 'Just because it didn't happen doesn't mean it at the lips-and the eyes, isn't true." EY the darkened slivers of the eyes. -ASKOLD SKALSKY

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 57 LIGHTER MINDS "No." "Liar. Prove it. Say *&#@!" Don, the only guy I knew who could cure cancer just by cussing, wouldn't say *&#@!, IF 1 WERE BISHOP . . . no matter how much I tormented him. The worst he would say was "flip." That and hit me in the head with the bait box four times. By midday, Don had finally confessed that he was tryng to quit swearing-and that he Kirby was going to be my new spiritual leader. He By Robert swore me to secrecy when I quit laughing an hour later. "You have to promise you won't tell anyone," he said. I bowed my head, folded my arms, and promised. I told evervone as soon as 1 -got home. 1 mean I called people I didn't even know. My wife stopped me from taking out an ad in the newspaper. I explained that I was doing Don a favor: a bishop has to get used to being lied to. It's been six months, and I'm still not ad- justed. I was comfortable with the Fisher-of- Fish Don. I don't think I'll ever be ready for the Fisher-of-Men Don. When your bishop asks if you've been honest in your dealings with your fellow man, it's a little hard to answer "yesnwhen he personally knows you once tdok 152 fish over the limit and that you consider dvna- mite to be an acceptable lure. Likewise, it5 hard when someone with whom you once held long, philosophical discussions about the differences between sisters in the ward and Playboy bunnies asks if you've been keeping your thoughts pure. And it's especially hard on the ego when the bishop's response to the majority of your If I were bishop, casseroles, Spam, answers in the temule recommend interview is, "Okay, now tell me the truth, you lying Kool-Aid, would be part of the forbidden sack of spit." It's also hard to say no to a items in the Word of Wisdom. bishop who routinely confuses "exhorting" with "extorting." Y WARD recently changed within a hundred yards of his house. Sometimes, in my less sane moments, 1 bishops. Short of finding out the For two weeks, every priesthood-bearing contemplate what it would be like to be a M Church isn't true, swapping male (except rnoi) was suspected of being the bishop. bishops is the most traumatic thing that can new bishop. Prayers were said, testimonies Bishop Kirby. Sounds ominous. So do the happen to an LDs ward. That and maybe the offered, bets made, but no one knew for sure. titles Prime Minister Kirby, President Kirby, death of Rush Limbaugh. I had the new bishop figured out two Boss Hog Kirby, Surgeon General Kirby, and It happened all of a sudden. Our old spir- weeks in advance. I wasn't praying about it Hillary Kirby My wife says it's the juxtaposi- itual leader, Bishop Smith, finally moved either. I was ice fishing. Don Bone and I were tion of implied power and known fool in away He was so concerned about disrupting eating jerky and slowly freezing to death be- each of these titles that makes them so wom- our schedules that he tried to move in the side a hole augured in the middle of Fish some. I say she has even less of a chance of middle of the night. In fact, he got a re- Lake when suddenly he said: "Dam." becoming bishop that I do and so she should straining order to keep the ward from getting "What?" I asked in surprise. shut up. Don tried to act like nothing had hap- I think I'd make an interesting bishop. ROBERT KIRBY is a columnistfor the Salt Lake pened. He pointed at the hole. "1 said 'dam.' Not necessarily a good one, but at least not a Tribune. He lives in Springville, Utah, with his The fish got away." boring one. ~ot-likea certain ex-fishing- wife and daughters. Kirby welcomes e-mail at I knew right then. It wasn't what Don had buddy-turned-bishop that I know. So, just in [email protected]. A version of this column said, but what he hadn't said. "Dam?" I de- case the stake president is thinking about originally appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune manded. "What the hell is 'dam'? Are you making another change in the fuhrership of and is reprinted with permission. trying to stop cussing?" the Dogpatch 8th Ward, maybe I ought to

PAGE 58 SEPTEMBER 1997 highlight my plan. forth, and pontificate all they want-as long Sunday School class for lifelong Mormons First, let's show for the record that within as they keep drilling. who need basics like baptism, prayer, tithing, the confines of an LDS ward, bishops wield Currently, the average ward sacrament and home teaching repeated 900 times be- some serious power. The job doesn't pay meeting sounds like feeding time in a rain fore it sinks in-will be held in the parking diddly, but they have lots of say. Here's what forest. All small children (pew monkeys) lot. Bishop Kirby would do with that say: must now wear muzzles in the chapel. Basketball and softball will be replaced Verily and henceforth, each and every Casseroles, Spam, Kool-Aid, dry by hockey and boxing as ward sports. At testimony offered on Fast Sunday will be fol- cookies, and lima beans are now part of the least then there will be an excuse for the be- lowed by a three-minute question-and-an- forbidden items in the Word of Wisdom. havior. swer period. Anyone who claims the Three Diet Coke, however, is still an optional item. Up-to-the-minute sports scores will be Nephites helped them change a flat tire A reinstatement of the Two-and-a-Half electronically posted on a board in the chapel better have some proof. Minute Talk and an introduction of the new near the hymn numbers. No excommunications for dissenting and long-awaited One-Minute Testimony. There you have it, my plan for being a views in the Dogpatch 8th Ward. Anyone Let's not kid ourselves that the 8th Ward bishop. It5 an interesting plan. Like most in- who doesn't think the way Bishop Kirby is a democracy. Long-winded correlation teresting plans it will never come to pass. thinks has to hand-auger holes in the ice at meetings are out of here. That's good. Being a bishop would interfere Fish Lake. Dissidents can sulk, carp, hold Gospel Essentials Ad Nauseam-a new with my fishing. 0

THE EVOLUTION OF GOD Before light, before the firmament emerged from behind a milky ignorance, there was god, pure and omnipotent, rather unrocused but practical enough to smite academic theory Luckily, thought hadn't emerged either so nobody was smitten, and the world evolved with the exception of minotaurs who vanished out of sheer indecisiveness. Nothing was wrong with Homo sapiens except for a lack of confidence and an overwhelming belief in food. In fact, they were food for predators so often the half-erect, mostly bamed but stubborn sinews of the human race trembled because god had claws and teeth. Powerless, they endured morning and evening through the first millenium until fire and weapons subdued the animals. Humans glanced about and saw it was raining, raining more than they could imagine, making caves and rock ledges miserable places to sleep, so they reasoned, god must live above the weather. They looked at the sun, moon, even stars as gods, all the while shivering beside their fires, wondering what went wrong, offering smoke like a loose-fitting skin, something to warm god's attitutde. A few hundred thousand years and timbers were cut, heat installed like blankets of air. Copernicus had a strange dream about god. While scientists observed a string of asinine conclusions, one thought shook the earth: God was revised, confined to paper just like a government. New territories opened, quarks are still wrestling with angels for space on the head of a pin.

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 59

p- SUNSTONE

REVIEWS its president. It achieves this by portraying President Gordon B. Hinckley as a normal person, not a titan. His unflappable humor, his compassion, his workaholic devotion to FORWARD,STRAIGHTFORWARD his calling (like President Spencer W Kimball), his clear writing style, his healthy family life-all these suggest to readers that GO FORWARD WITH FAITH, BIOGRAPHY OF their attributes and daily life are similar. Dew GORDON B. HINCKLEY describes a president who is often moved to by Sheri L. Dew tears by spiritual experiences, but they are not dissimilar from those of the general Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1996 membership. In this regard, the book reaches 653 pages, $23.95 its mark and will be recommended by one reader to another until it is read by thou- sands. 1 hope it will be translated. The author does not pretend to present an analytical or profound work; that is not its purpose. In some ways, that is the nature of the subject: President Hinckley is a man who uses straightforward language and concen- trates on simple gospel principles. It is interesting to contrast this work with the biography of Spencer W Kimball, also a modest man, which was nonetheless more rigorous in its candor. It, too, was widely read. Even more demanding was the biography of J. Reuben Clark. Volume one of that Reviewed by Douglas D. Alder set, The Public Years, by Frank Fox, set a standard that will be rarely equaled for its keen insight and ability to deal with delicate issues. Dew avoided heavy themes and skirted some of the tensions at Church headquarters Despite excessive praise which such as the tough times of Church financial investments and tension between major President Hinckley would be thefirst to leaders, all of which President Hinckley experienced. For example, Dew mentions say is unnecessary, he is portrayed as President David 0. McKay's choice of J. completely believable. His pussion is Reuben Clark as second counselor, after President Clark had served as first counselor helping people world-wide to live the in the previous First Presidency, but she principles of the gospel ofJesus Christ. avoids suggesting any reasons. She describes President Hincklev's close association with Henry D. Moyle right up to the death but ig- nores the building program controversy that S THE NUMBER OF MORMONS vices such as videos and satellite broadcasts, bore so heavily upon Moyle in his last years. grows, Church leaders at the center as well as leaders traveling worldwide, are It is clearly the author's intent to uplift, not to face the challenge of helping the used to maintain that personal link with the analyze. Nonetheless, she achieves this in members identify with them. In the 1950s apostles and First Presidency With this biog- good taste. the million-member church was comfortably raphy the author attempts to further that per- In contrast, Dew does discuss the monu- interwoven; most Latter-day Saints had con- sonal link between members and the current mental decision in 1978 to extend the privi- tacts with general authorities during mission prophet. leges of the priesthood to all races. Similarly calls and releases, quarterly stake confer- Because the book was expected to sell she includes the scandal surrounding Mark ences, even as friends. This was most helpful widely, Deseret Book Company appointed Hofmann's forgery of Mormon documents and to an organization based on tight central au- one of its own officers, Sheri L. Dew, to write President Hinckley's candid assessment that thority. Now that the Church is ten times this official biography Dew, a capable writer, the leaders of the Church were deceived. Also larger and heading toward twenty, many de- had previously written the biography of Ezra to her credit, Dew includes a frank description Taft Benson, so the work began with the ad- of President Hinckley's difficulties when both DOUGIAS D. ALDER sewed as president of vantage of experience and talent. President Kimball and First Counselor Marion Dixie College from 1986 to 1993 where he is Go Forward with Faith is frankly addressed G. Romney were so incapacitated with age currently professor of history He taught previ- to the Church's general membership and and illness that he was alone in First ously at Utah State University for 23 years. aims to help them feel a personal bond with Presidency meetings for many months.

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The book's conceptual structure is REVIEWS largely chronological and narrative. From the rich stories we are left to build a larger framework. Clearly, one such issue is the consequences of growth. Readers endure OUR MODERN,DIRTY MINDS trip after trip with Apostle Hinckley to places such as Japan, China, Viet Nam, and especially the Philippines where the SAME-SEX DYNAMICS AMONG NINETEENTH-CENTURY Church experienced explosive growth. AMERICANS: A MORMON EXAMPLE Readers also watch astounding growth in South America, where Elder Hinckley trav- by D. Michael Quinn elled often. Attempts to train local leaders University of Illinois Press, 1996 in these places to avoid inactivity among 477 pages, $29.95 converts remind us of conditions in the Joseph Smith era. Dew could have ana- lyzed this issue more. Another issue readers could extra~olate from the narrative is the limits of central authority. While several functions were dele- gated to regonal and stake leaders, work of the general authorities multiplied rapidly; leaders like Elder Hinckley were overloaded and often subjected to severe stress. Reviewed by Carrie A. Miles Someone searching for help about personal tension may find this book better than therapy Certainly President Hinckley's life has been stretched beyond the normal limit ME-SEX in his attempts to keep the members around Michael Quinn carefully documents a the globe in contact with the apostles and NAMICS dramatic shift in Mormonism's response presidency MONG Majorie Hinckley, President Hinckley's wife, cushions this stress. She is described as. ETEENTt to same-sex activities, but he doesn't a truly amazing person in the text because explain the cause of the shqt. she neutralizes the pressure with good sense. She knew that she would not be first in her husbandk life; the Church was already the object of his total dedication when they married. She learned to cope with that reality was surprised to find Michael Quinn's few confessions and crime reports are pretty early on. Many women today have similar recent book, Same-Sex Dynamics much all that history has left of such homo- challenges and may be encouraged by her at- I among Nineteenth-Century Ameri- erotic behavior in nineteenth-century Utah. titude. By developing real independence and cans: A Mormon Example, in my tiny neigh- Faced with this lack of data, however, Quinn focusing on meaningful objectives, she borhood library. The Rosegarden Branch goes on to explore the more subtle aspects of avoided the depression that could have ac- does not buy many books on Mormonism. It same-sex interactions. It is unusual to find com~aniedthe constant strain about them; was there, no doubt, because the librarian, such a well-researched and documented her husband travelled at least one fourth of the editor who chose the classification study of one of the less sensational aspects of every year and he was constantly interrupted heading on the book jacket, and 1 all ex- everyday life-the affection and camaraderie the rest of the time. They often lived out of a pected the book to be about homosexuality that exists with men, among men, and with suitcase and missed many crucial moments But Same-Sex Dynamics does not admit to women, among women. in their family's traditions. Yet, because of her being about homosexuality per se, but about First. Quinn discusses the "homoso- constant devotion, the family is normal and more general, not necessarily erotic, relation- cia1"-the tendency for nineteenth-century enjoys a wonderful togethemess. ships among members of the same sex. social interaction to be clustered by sex. The book is absorbing. Despite the exces- (Hence the vague title.) The book was prob- Victorian and LDs men and women had their sive praise which President Hinckley would ably not about Mormon homosexual rela- own sex-segregated meetings and clubs and likely be the first to say is unnecessary, he is tionships---our real interest, of course--only didn't even sit next to each other in church. portrayed as thoroughly believable. Here is a because sex acts themselves, especially stig- The "homotactile" expression of same-sex af- man who builds his own house and loves to matized ones, leave little historical record. A fection was also accepted among nineteenth- remodel it. His real passion, though, is the century men and women. One (non-LDS) gospel of Jesus ~hris;and helping people all CARRIE A. MILES is a management consultant advice book, for example, took for granted over the globe to live its principles. Those with a doctorate in social and organizational that grls would hold hands, kiss, and caress who brave the book's thickness will find the psychology. She is married to Lany Iannaccone each other. Adults kissed each other "as a trip (the many trips!) rewarding. D and has two children. spontaneous expression of their religious de-

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I6 Mormonism probably hasn't changed as much as American culture has. What happens when a sexually repressive society becomes surrounded by a permissive one?"

votion and personal affection" (91). Joseph who apparently slept in his bed. No one as sexual. Quinn makes the case that nine- Smith encouraged same-sex friends to talk of seemed to object to either his living arrange- teenth-century casualness about same-sex af- their love and sleep "locked in each other's ments or to having them publicly acknowl- fection, touching, and bed-sharing came to embrace." (It's worth the price of the book edged in Church publications. Whether or be viewed with suspicion, if not sharply cur- just to read the original version of Smith's not Stephens was sexually involved with any tailed, only in the twentieth century It is as if statement.) Indeed, visiting general authori- of these young men is not known. Quinn we all got dirty minds about 1920 and ties and missionaries routinely shared beds notes that all of them went on to marry and heretofore innocent behavior became sexual- with each other, and many of Quinn's "ho- have children. But he points out that in nine- ized. But Quinn still has to grapple with the motactile" and "homoemotional" examples teenth-century Utah, "At the very least their questions of whether homoerotic behavior involve bed-sharing. stories demonstrate that these prominent was largely ignored because it did not take Quinn also reviews same-sex cohabitation Mormons felt confident about expressing place, because it did not occur to Church and "homoromantic" love poetry (some pub- publicly their intensely homosocial, homoro- leaders that people would do such things. or lished in the Children's Friend!). What proved mantic, and homotactile relationships with because it was practiced but considered rela- to be newsworthy and controversial, how- their same-sex domestic partners" (232). tively innocuous. ever, was his suggestion that three promi- I am not sure that I buy Quinn's interpre- Here I begin to suspect that this book is nent, turn-of-the-century Church leaders tation that all of these same-sex associations about homosexuality after all. To answer were homosexual (see SUNSTONE, Dec. imply meaningful relationships between these questions, Quinn examines the re- 1996, 73). Quinn's intent in discussing these members of the same sex. The "homosocial," sponse to homoerotic incidences (consensual cases, however, is not so much to debate no-girls-allowed segregation of clubs, militia, and forced) that became known to the these people's sexual orientations as it is to priesthood quorums, and sports teams may public. He concludes that for fifty years, the point out that the articles published about reflect only the restricted role of women at Mormon hierarchy regarded "homoerotic be- them in official LDS magazines were, by that time. Similarly, the sharing of beds, haviors as less serious than heterosexual inti- modem standards, so suggestive of homo- which Quinn notes was often required by macy outside maniage." But the data for this sexuality that they would never be printed overcrowded housing, was in many cases conclusion are inferential-criminal records, today. His main example, Evan Stephens, di- simply an uncomfortable fact of life. But I do for the most part-and Quinn struggles with rector of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and accept his point that a lot of "homom-what- them. The cases available for analysis are few composer of many LDS hymns, openly lived ever behavior was acceptable in the nine- and spread over a long span of time. Quinn with a string of "boy chums" and "nephews" teenth century because no one construed it also notes in some cases that politics and family connection played a part in the severity of the legal punishments, making it even more dificult to use the data to determine what Church leaders really thought of the seriousness of homoerotic activities. The next chapter, "From Relative Tolerance to Homophobia in Twentieth- Century Mormonism," however, indicates Quinn's intent to pursue this point. While the nineteenth-century Church hierarchy had little to say publicly about homosexuality, by 1952, First Presidency Counselor J. Reuben Clark was waming members that "the homosexuals are today exercising great influence." BW President Ernest Wilkinson reported in 1959 that the apostles on the school's executive committee discussed "the growing problem in our society of homosexuality." In 1963, BW announced that it would not knowingly admit a homosexual, and Apostle Mark E. Petersen outlawed the sharing of beds by missionaries in Great Britain and Western Europe. "Homo-sexual "I think 'maritally challenged' more accurately acts" (rephrased to "homosexuality" in 1976) was added to the list of grounds for excom- describes my situation. " munication in 1968. and "lesbianism" was

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- - added in 1982. That these behaviors were homosexuality is incompatible with many of NOTES not publicly decried or listed as grounds for the Church's basic tenets, but even more excommunication until so recently supports alarming from the Church's perspective, it is 1. One complaint 1 have with this book is that Quinn's contention that "the LDS presidents political: "the homosexuals are today exer- someone as careful as Quinn is in general, and as cising great influence." It is one thing to deal careful as he is about the use of the term homosexual in and their counselors who reached adulthood particular, uses the pejorative "homophobic" so Ireely in the nineteenth century shared less strin- compassionately with sin, especially sexual 2. Quinn says that "A major part of the explana- gent views" about homosexuality than those sin, which Quinn documents was widespread tion Tor that tolerance is that as children and young born later (374). But although Quinn specu- even in nineteenth-century Utah. But it is an- adults those . . . authorities were accustomed to the lates briefly on possible reasons for twen- other thing to accept a political position that is pervasive same-sex dynamics of nineteenth-century tieth-century "homophobia,"' he ends up directly at variance with the teachings of a re- Mormonism" (265), but perhaps because 1 don't ligion that places heavy emphasis on the het- think these dynamics had the emotional content attributing a disposition to disapprove of ho- Quinn thinks they do, 1 find this explanation circular. moerotic behavior mainly to having reached erosexual, reproductive, and eternal nature of 3. Richard A. Pomer, Seu and Reason (Cambridge. adulthood in the twentieth century. Telling the family In that case, a shying away from Mass.: Harvard University Press, 19921, 125. us when a cultural change occurred does not the "homoaffectionate," "homotactile," etc., is 4. 1 am drawing this line of reasoning from explain why it took place, however, and this not just a matter of dirty minds or homo- work 1 did on the Church's response to another social is certainly Quinn's weakest point.2 phobia, but is also a political response to an change it did not want to accept, the womeni move- I admit I'm asking much here-Quinn's increasingly political issue.5 ment. See Laurence R. lannaccone and Came A. Miles, "Dealing with social change: The Mormon book is on nineteenth-century America, and Mormonism probably has not changed as church's response to change in women's roles," Social he is sticking pretty strictly to historical much as American culture has moved out Forces 64 (June 1990): 1231-50; reprinted in methods, which might not admit to the kind from under it. Posner does not discuss what Cornwall, Heaton, and Young, eds. Contemporary of analysis I want to see-but I believe that happens when a sexually repressive society Mormonism (Urbana. 1L: University of Illinois Press. the meaning of nineteenth-century patterns becomes surrounded by a sexually permis- 19941, 265-86. cannot be understood unless we understand sive one, but the answer could well be the 5. The politicization ol sexuality leaves the individual. who may be struggling with a deep, personal, why the Church retreated from them in the kind of shift that Quinn has so carefully doc- non-political dilemma, twisting in the wind; unfortu- twentieth (which, of course, must be why umented. V nately, it is the nature of political struggles that the in- Quinn included this chapter in the first dividuals are sacrificed for the cause. place). Quinn says, without much elabora- tion, that nineteenth-century Americans did not attach the same significance to homoerotic behavior that we do. I suggest that this is indeed the key to the nineteenth-century's "restrain[t], even toleran[ceIv (402). This explanation is inherent in Quinn's initial and concluding discussions of the cross-cultural perspectives and the difficulties of defining homosexuality Legal scholar and federal judge Richard Posner says that in sexually repressive soci- eties, "a homosexual is likely to be thought of as a 'normal' person (heterosexual) who com- mits unnatural acts because of lust or other wickedness." Only in sexually permissive cultures are homosexuals "free to associate with one another . . . forming visible homosexual subcultures from which heterosexuals learn that there is such a thing as homosexual pref- e~ence."~When homoerotic behavior was viewed simply as the "wickedness" or "bad habits" of occasional individuals, the Church could afford to forgive a confessed or convicted act of "lust." Rather than threatening the Church's boundaries or its world view, occasional "deviant" behavior confirms them, and there is no need to undertake a public campaign against the sinful acts of individuals. But the sexual politics of the twentieth century changed the meaning of those individual acts4 Twentieth-century gay advocates insist that homosexuality is an identity-in- born, natural, and hence beyond moral judgment. This latter understanding of

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BOOKNOTES suggestive and intriguing. Fundamentally, Linzey argues that Christian theology establishes the "generosity RELlGION AND MASS MEDIA: larger trend, Stout says (see "Schindler's Taken paradigm" for the relation between God and AUDIENCES AND ADAPTATIONS Off BYU's List," SUNSTONE Apr. 1995). creation and thus for the relation between hu- ed. Daniel A. Stout and Stout's work supports sociolo~stArmand mankind and creation. God is, first of all, gen- Judith M. Buddenbaum Mauss's contention that as the Church ex- erous toward humankind through the agency Sage Publications, 1996 pands, there is a "growing trend at the grass- of Christ's love of the world. Second, this gen- 294 pages, $24.00 roots level toward a fundamentalist religious erosity is manifest through the goodness of posture both in life style and'in scriptural in- creation itself as a reflection of Divine good- Reviewed by Brian Kagel terpretation" (The Angel and the Beehive, 34). ness. As a response to this generosity and as a "Teachings about media effects appear to part of covenant fidelity in response to God, DANIEL STOUT, assistant professor of com- support this conclusion," Stout writes. "As we as humans bear a special responsibility to- munications BW, and Judith M. church leaders continue to perceive societal ward the rest of creation, especially animals. Buddenbaum. associate urofessor of tech- threats to the family, they are likely to advo- This concern for animal rights flowing out of nical journalism at Colorado State University, cate didactic approaches to media education the generosity paradigm does, however, lead have recently compiled a book that merges over those that emphasize interpretation and to an unresolved tension in Linzey's work as ideas from mass communication and the so- analysis" (96). in animal rights theories generally. To adopt ciology of religion. Observing that "scholars Two other interesting and insightful chap- the animal rights position is to see sentient an- in both areas have worked in relative isola- ters tackle Latter-day Saints and the media, imals, not just humans, as specially valuable tion, with no clear bridge of understanding one on Mormon women's approaches to tele- in creation. But if God is generous toward cre- between them" (6). the editors gathered vision viewing and another on BW students' ation as such, then how can animals be re- thinking on topics ranging from Catholicism movie viewing habits. garded as special? Furthermore, if God is and censorship to fundamentalism and the The book's often antiseptic writing and generous toward all of creation, why would he media to gospel rap. occasional typos are minor irritations. allow animals of all varieties to destroy other Stout and Buddenbaum not only col- Perhaps the authors err too much in pans of creation? If animals have rights then lected essays, they authored half of the boo& adopting sociology's utilitarian writing style are we morally obligated to intervene when eighteen chapters. Stouts "Protecting the instead of communication's twin mission of one animal hunts and kills another, as we Family: Mormon Teachings About ass informing and engagng. Nonetheless, would be when human beings do the same Media" surveys general conference addresses Religion and Mass Media is not only a good things? If not, then how can we oppose and articles published in the Improvement Era initial synthesis of mass communication and human hunting per se? and Ensign since 1897 and determines that, the sociology of religion but also fertile This work is the best of a very diverse lot in recent years, specific Church guidelines or ground for future studies. P of material on theology and animals. It is not recommendations for appropriate media use BRlAN KAGEL, SUNSTONESnews editor; the last word by any means, but for both "have shifted from artistically and intellectu- teacher and student it might be a work that is earned a BA in journalism at BIUand is working ally grounded criteria to a rules-based ap- consulted first. V proach (88). In 1903, talks in the on an MA in English literature and writing at Improvement Era instructed Latter-day Saints UNLV. RlCHARD SHERLOCK is a professor of history to read "good books," books that are at Utah State University. "thought-producing" and that "stimulate and ANIMAL THEOLOGY awaken good and noble feelings" (93). A by Andrew Linzey 1934 Era article encouraged readers to use University of Illinois Press, 1995 - i&Pontius' Puddle literary criticism to evaluate movies, and in 224 pages, $13.95 1948, another article emphasized that Mormons must become "mire intelligent Reviewed by Richard Sherlock critics" of the media (93). But guidelines based on artistic criteria THIS IS THE latest in a series of works have appeared less frequently in Church by British theologian Andrew Linzey, ex- publications over the past twenty-five years, ploring the connections between animal Stout writes. Instead, leaders have made rights and Christian theology. His funda- statements such as "Much . . . rock music is mental thesis is that Christianity and animal purposely designed to push immorality, nar- rights go together, and, as such, much of our cotics, revolution, atheism, and nihilism usual practice regarding them must be aban- through language that often carries a double doned. This includes factory farming, meaning" (93) and "Would we feel comfort- hunting and genetic engineering-which the able during the entire program if the Savior author regards as "animal slavery." Much of was [sic] watching with us?" (94). The what Linzey argues for is standard animal Brethren have advised members not to view rights fare, with appropriate references to the any R-rated films-regardless of content. pathbreaking work of animal rights theorists BYU'S decision not to show the critically ac- Peter Singer, Bernard Rollin, and Tom claimed Schindler's List is clearly part of this Reagan. The theological work done here is

PAGE 64 SEPTEMBER 1997 AWARDS ' r--~w.,..,.-

5%- ---- .-a MHA PASSES ON YI-'ID.~Cllllkr-- HINCKLEY BIOGRAPHY IN MAY 1997, the Mormon History Association held its annual -- meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the 1847 Mormon trek from Winter GO BUY THE BOOK! Quarters. The previous year, the association had met in Snowbird, Utah, for the centennial of Utah statehood; in May 1998, the associa- Order these MHA award-winning books from tion will meet in Washington, D.C. Below are the awards announced Sunstone at 10 percent off the retail price at the conference. Interestingly, two regular awards were not granted (plus postage and handling). this year: the best biography award, obviously overlooking Sheri Dew's best-selling biography of LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, Go Forward with Faith, and the William Grover and A fascinating Winifred Foster Reese Award for Best Dissertation. chronicle of the gradual diminishment MORMON HISTORY ASSOCIATION of the office of Award for Best Book Church Patriarch. I* i heed IRENE M. BATES AND E. GARY SMITH m- ~qr~rrarch Lost Legacy: The Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch ,w..r Y .me* (Illinois) &=60$29.25 Steven F. Christensen Award for Excellence in Docurnenta~Biblioaraphy DAN VOGEL Early Mormon Documents: volume 1 (Signature Books) I!! Emcis M. and Emilv S. Chioman Award for Excellence in a First Book All the relevant MAURINE CARR WARD primary documents The 1846-48 Life Writings of Mary Haskin Parker Richards relating to pre- 183 1 (Utah State University) Mormon origins. Special Citation M L. JACKSON NEWELL Matters of Conscience: Conversations with Sterling M. McMunin $31.45 (Signature) I. Edaar I von Award for Best Article WILLIAM G. HARTLEY The engaging "From Men to Boys: LDS Aaronic Priesthood Offices, 1829-1996" (Journal of Mormon History) journals and LEdgjir Lvon Articlesof Fxcellence letters of a woman TODD COMPTON with muscular "A Trajectory of Plurality: An Overview of dystrophy who made Joseph Smith's Thirty-three Plural Wives" (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought) the trek to Utah. MARK R. GRANDSTAFF sw6 "General Regis de Trobriand-The Mormons and the USA Army $26.95 at Camp Douglas, 1870-71 (Utah Historical Quarterly) BYU Women's Research lnstiute Award for Excellence in Women's Studies Fifty-two in-depth JILL MULVAY DERR interviews with the The Significance of '0My Father' in the prominent, late Personal Journey of Eliza R. Snow" (BYU Studies) Mormon philosopher Conference Scholarshios and theologian. SCOlT ALAN CARSON, JAMES DELOS GARDNER $2846 RICHARD IAN KIMBALL, DAVID SEAN MUTILLO $26.05 JANA K. RlESS Juanita Brooks Graduate Award JANA K. RlESS For shipping and handling, add $2 for first book and $1 for Juanita Brooks Underaraduate Award each additional book. Mail check or credit card orders to JAMES DELOS GARDNER Sunstone, 343 N. Third West, Salt Lake City, UT 84103. Credit card orders may also be placed by NON-MHA AWARDS telephone (8011355-5926), fax (8011355-4043), Grace Fort Arrington Award for Excellence in History or e-mail ([email protected]). WILLIAM A. "BERT" WILSON

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 65 ON THE RECORD ON NON-AMERICAN G.A.S are imposed. Q: What about gay people who Q: When The Chronicle did a feel God made them that way? series last year on the global impact You're saying they must lead a celi- of the Mormons, we spoke to bate liJe? Mormons in Japan, Russia and A: Well, yes, I suppose, essen- Mexico, and some say the church tially. A lot of people live a celi- MAIN MORMON" has not moved fast enough to give bate life. Lots of them. A third of power and authority to Mormons the people in the United States jrom other ethnic groups. are now single. Many of them A: It'll come. It's coming. It's live a celibate life. This spring, while in Northern CaliJornia to deliver an address to the World coming. We have people from Q: But what homosexuals say is Forum of Silicon Valley, ws Church President Gordon B. Hinckley was in- Mexico, Central America, South they don't have the opportunity to terviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle. These are excerptsfrom that America, Japan, Europe among many and be monogamous and published interview. the general authorities. And that faithful. This interview was published under the above heading in the 13 April will increase, I think, inevitably. A: We believe that mamage, 1997 San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle. Copy right 1997, As we become more and more a of a man and a woman, is that Sunday Examiner & Chronicle. Reprinted by permission. world church, we'll have greater which is ordained of God for the world representation. procreation of children. That's a very sacred thing and is ordained ON HOMOSEXUALITY of God and ought to be observed. Q: The church has issued a statement concerning the campaign ON ABORTION ON BECOMING A GOD pare to the Catholic Church? Do for legal recognition of same-sk I Q: On another issue, what is the Question: There are some sig- you see yourself as Catholics would marriages in Hawaii and other Mormon position on abortion? Are nificant diferences in your beliefs. see the pope? states. And the church has asked its you against it in all cases, or is it For instance, don't Mormons be- A: Oh, I think in that we're members to write to their legisla- more nuanced than that? lieve that God was once a man? both seen as the head officer of tures opposing this. A: Well, we make some al- Answer: I wouldn't say that. the church, yes. A: Yes. We've been involved lowance in terms of the health of There was a little couplet coined, Q: And this belief in contempo- in some action against same-sex the mother, when thatb deter- "As man is, God once was. As rary revelation and prophecy?-~s mamages. Now, we have gays in mined by more than one physi- God is, man may become." Now the prophet, tell us how that works. the church. Good people. We cian, and so on. We make that's more of a couplet than any- How do you receive divine revela- take no action against such exception in terms of that. We thing else. That gets into some tion? What does itfeel like? people-provided they don't be- make exception in terms of that. pretty deep theology that we A: Let me say first we-make an exception in don't know very much about. that we have a great body terms of rape. We have a Q: So you're saying the church of revelation, the vast "We don't need much narrow window of excep- is still struggling to understand this? majority of which came tion. But by and large, A: Well, as God is, man may from the prophet Joseph revelation. Mle neec we're opposed to this become. We believe in eternal Smith. We don't need wholesale business of progression. Very strongly We much revelation. We abortions. And particu- to pay more attentio - believe that the glory of God is need to pay. , more atten- larly to this practice that's intelligence and whatever prin- tion to the revelation to the revelation we'\ come to light recently of. ciple of intelligence we attain we've already received. 1 . . what do they call it? unto in this life, it will rise with Now, if a problem already recc Q: Partial birth? us in the Resurrection. should arise on which A: Partial-birth abor- Knowledge, learning, is an we don't have an answer, I I tion. It5 a heinous thing. eternal thing. And for that we pray about it, we may I It's a vicious, evil thing. reason, we stress education. fast about it, and it comes. come involved in transgression, Life is precious. Life is sacred. We're trying to do all we can to Quietly. Usually no voice of any sexual transgression. If they do, And it ought so to be observed. make of our people the ablest, kind, but just a perception in the we do with them exactly what ON DEATH PENALTY best, brightest people that we mind. I liken it to Elijah's experi- we'd do with heterosexuals who can. ence. When he sought the Lord, transgress. Q: Of course, the Roman there was a great wind, and the We have a very strong moral Catholic Church has that same ON REVELATION Lord was not in the wind. And I teaching concerning abstinence feeling. They also extend that to in- Q: You are the president, there was an earthquake, and the before mamage and total fidelity clude their opposition to the death prophet, seer and revelator of the Lord was not in the earthquake. following mamage. And, regard- penalty and euthanasia. What are Mormon Church? And a fire, and the Lord was not less of whether they're heterosex- the Mormon Church's teachings on A: 1 am so sustained, yes. in the fire. But in a still, small I uals or otherwise: if they step those two issues? (Laughter) voice. Now that's the way it I over that line there are certain A: We have the death penalty Q: Now, how would that com- works. I sanctions, certain penalties that in the state of Utah. That's a

PAGE 66 SEPTEMBER 1997 matter for the civil government. And it's so handled. With refer- NEWS ence to euthanasia, no, at this point at least, we haven't favored that. I'm not a fan of Jack Kevorkian. But we're sensitive to the feelings of people, when they have conditions that seem ter- minal or hopeless. But we want to keep them alive and as comfortable and as well and as happy as we can.

ON CLONING Q: What about this business of cloning? A: This business of cloning is getting so complicated now. Q: Yes, and people are looking to the churches for guidance. A: My position on that is simply that God ordained that a man and a woman should become the creators of children. A man and a woman properly married should become the lathers and mothers of children. I can't quite understand why or how Dancers pctfo~-rnat Zuacahn, near St. George, Utah you are going to pick the right one to clone? Who's he going to be? What are his particular characteristics that you want to clone? I don't expect to see any- MORMONS BLEND ART AND body try to clone me. (Laughter)

ON EXCOMMUNICATING FAITH INTO WORK DISSIDENTS By Peggy Fletcher Stack Paxton, who wrote Tuacahn's in- heaven, you will be judged by Q: One more question: A few house musical, Utah! how your compositions brought years back, the church excommuni- This story originally appeared in For three days and nights par- people to God." cated some dissidents. Is the church the Salt Lake Tribune. Reprinted ticipants heard technical tips on Bruce Christensen, dean of large enough to put up with having by permission. how to get a play produced, sell the College of Fine Arts and a loyal opposition? paintings, use the Internet, bal- Communications at LDS Church- A: It has always had that. We MANY ARTISTS believe their ance family life with creative pas- owned Brigham Young believe in intellectual curiosity work glorifies God, but sion and network with other University, added an authorita- We carry it on constantly We Mormons seem particularly ob- Mormon artists. They heard and tive and church-conscious maintain the largest church- sessed with matching their faith saw works in progress as well as thought to that. "Art that testifies owned university in America. We and creativity polished productions. of Christ . . . fuses creativity with believe in education, in thinking, It is that compulsion, per- They were treated to a dance accountability, and it celebrates in doing things. But when some- haps, that drew more than 250 concert, a musical extravaganza, limits, working within the great body goes out and publicly fights Mormon artists, students and an art exhibit, fiction and poetry circle that proscribes all truth. It the church, opposes the church, hopefuls last weekend to readings, and an all-star music is art that places God first," he then we move in. Tuacahn, an arts facility situated concert. said in a keynote address. Now, we had six excommuni- beneath the sandstone grandeur But coursing through every "A community of faith pro- cations, as I remember. That of Snow Canyon in southwestern discussion were two questions: vides the venue for offerings to same year, in the state of Utah, Utah. what makes art Mormon, and be bufled and polished by friends we had more than 5,000 convert They were participating in the how do you preach Christ who encourage, teachers who baptisms. Six versus 5,000 con- Third Annual Mormon Arts through artistic media? counsel, authorities who judge, vert baptisms. Now that's the pic- Festival, organized by Doug Roger Hofmann, who with his and the Holy Spirit who con- ture. But these are blown all out Stewart, famous in Mormondom wife, Melanie, composes LDS sa- firms," said Christensen, former of proportion. They attract the for writing the popular musical cred music, summed it up this president of the Public media. B' Saturday's Warrior and Robert way: "When you die and go to Broadcasting System.

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 67 Throughout the conference, what is entailed in being a and some art. A Church of musicians have created "a dis- comparisons were made between "Mormon" artist. England bishop rejects Handel's tinctive Mormon sound." "In the art that uplifts and that which The festival organizers do not music as profane because it is East we call it Wasatch pop," she destroys. Metaphors of light and think Mormon art means only performed in theaters rather than said. "It is a sweet saccharin dark were constantly invoked to "depictions of [Mormon cathedrals. sound that is not good enough." pit LDS artists against "the founder] Joseph Smith or adapta- "If God must be shut up into a Provo poet and lyricist world." tions of the Book of Mormon," little box-like St. Paul's Marvin Payne countered, "Our Church artists saw themselves Paxton said. "Anything that Cathedral-and he cannot go saccharin pop should not be as the biblical David, having to comes from the heart and soul of outside into the town, into the compared to Verdi, but to the slay the world's Goliath. a Mormon is Mormon art." mud and muck on the streets - world's pop." But in a panel discussing cul- Still, this year's festival fea- if God cannot be everywhere, But some festival attendees tural criticism, BW English pro- tured paintings detailing Smith's what hope is there for the were less interested in the philo- fessor Eugene England said that life and a play that was drawn world?" Handel says at the sophical jousting. was a false dichotomy "Christ from the Book of Mormon. climax of the play Bruce Newbold, a struggling was open to and tolerant of the Stewart's own "A Day, A Night "God must go into the world actor and writer in Los Angeles gentile and was severely critical and A Day." or the world will never be sacred. who has created a one-man show of his own Jewish culture," While technically competent, And you know what? He loves it on the life of Christ, came to England said. In the scriptures, neither is likely to have much ap- there." Tuacahn looking for contacts and he said, the central opposition is peal beyond ~ormondom Slover's play worked on role models. between God and the church or One work, however, did ex- themes that engage other "I don't know if 1 received any chosen people, whom God is emplify Paxton's hopes for the Mormon artists, but without information that was unique to trylng to refine and purify, not festival. "Joyful Noise," a new overt mention of the church. me," Newbold said after the fes- between the church and the play by Tim Slover of BW'S the- Those who try consciously to tival. "But I did meet some world. "We need to be more crit- atre and film department. tells proselytize with their art often people who could recommend ical of ourselves and more appre- the story of how Handel com- fail, said some festival partici- something here and there that ciative of what God has inspired posed "Messiah." It is a tale of pants. might move me in the right di- his other children to do," said failure and redemption, Slover "I don't think our music rection." England. The works of said. writing is anywhere near what it Such modest networking is a Shakespeare and Dostoevsky, for The first story line invol\,es ought to be," said Metropolitan good start toward fulfilling example, are profoundly Susanna Cibber, a prominent Opera singer Ariel Bybee Stewart's dreams for the festival. Christian and uplifting but look singing actress in the 1730s who speaking on a panel discussing "The first two years you are closely at darkness and evil. "We fell into disrepute after having an balancing an and families. "We spreading your wings, putting cannot obtain eternal life unless extra-marital affair and a child think if we put sacred words to your feet on the ground," he said. we actually know and compre- out of wedlock. music, it is great." "This year I feel like we finally hend by our experience the prin- The story of her return to the Bybee said that some church took off." B- ciple of good and the principle of stage to sing in evil, the light and the darkness, "Messiah" suggests truth, virtue and holiness, also the experience of * &i vice, wickedness, and conup- "anyone coming I tf: DM 'ye /~.v/f-ed/ tion," England quoted Brigham back from anything L 8 Young as saying. that is deeply $jSUNST'NE Christmas Party* 8 Artists could be the faith's shaming," Slover "finest critics," pushing people said. towards their better selves, said It is also the story Tuesday, 9 December 1997 Claudia Hams, a drama spe- of Handel, who at 4:30 - 8:30 pm C3= cialist in BW's English 55 feels artistically Department and a correspondent blocked, if not fin- I/fee decnr~f~ng- * for Back Stage, a theater period- ished, but then com- * ical. "We don't trust our artists or poses one of the ReJre~Xnzenfs critics enough." world's most famous Feeling beleaguered, Mormon sacred oratorios. artists expect loyalty from LDS "These are two critics in the form of praise and people who are positive reviews. beaten doun, who 4ufXor 600L J'SNA~-J Chris Hicks, movie critic for struggle to be able to P SUNSTONE 4 LDS Church-owned Deseret News, keep doing what has '6 said "if I review films by given meaning to 343 North Third West bring 4 Mormons, they feel betrayed if 1 their lives," he said. Salt Lake City, UT 84103 subfor- I don't give them a positive re- It also describes $ 80 11355-5926 Santa gjfi view." the conflict between @ 8 That gets to the hean of just organized re1 lg~on k%~%%R%%m%~%~%%%%%%R%%%%%%~~%d

PAGE 68 SEPTEMBER 1937 Industrial in 1947 coordinate financial and labor as a place of gath- contributions to the community ering for Mexican The people of Colonia Mormons who de- Industrial have faced consider- sired to live the able challenges, but their suc- fullness of the cesses demonstrate that the gospel, i.e., the communitarian spirit still lives United Order and and thrives in places far from the plural marriage. Great Basin. Beautifully deco- Bautista and his rated and well-built brick and followers con- wooden homes have replaced the tinued to call them- small huts that peas- selves Mormons, ants with minimal resources con- but for legal pur- structed amidst prejudice and poses, they estab- discrimination from both lished a church Catholics and Latter-day Saints now known as El in Ozumba. Regular harvests of Reino de Dios en corn and wheat exemplify the su Plenitud (The success of communally managed Kingdom of God in agricultural lands. In the center its Fullness). of Colonia Industrial, on the In the center of Colonia Ind~tstrinl,on the strect namedjor_losephSm~th, Sought out by street named for Joseph Smith, stands an endowment house, a product o/community effoolts. other polygamists,. .- stands an ornate temple, or en- Bautista associated dowment house, a product of the By Thomas Murphy By 1937, the LD~church in his small community with funda- community efforts. Next to the Mexico split in two after efforts mentalist leader Joseph W temple. members have begun THE HISTORY of Mormonism in by Mexican Mormons to obtain Musser. Musser's appointment of constructing a large new chapel Mexico reached a new landmark greater access to education, Bautista as an apostle of the supported by donations of early in 1997 when Colonia translated materials, and temple Council and his promotion of money and labor. Industrial, a United Order com- work, and after local leadership Rulon Allred angered some fun- While the enormous growth munity founded by Margarito had failed to gain the desired re- damentalists and eventually led of the LDS church in Mexico Bautista Valencia, achieved, its sponse from LDS church leaders to a schism among Mormon fun- (720,000 members in 1995) fiftieth successful year. Second, in Utah. The new Mormon damentalists in 1951. Bautista dwarfs the small offshoot in third, and fourth generations of group, known as the Third and his followers remained asso- Colonia Industrial, these Mexican Mormons in Colonia Convention, consisted of one- ciated with the Allred faction but Mexican Mormons' tenacious ad- Industrial are celebrating third of the Mexican Mormons continued to maintain a substan- herence to the principles ol the through sermons and activities and operated independently of tial degree of autonomy until United Order and plural mar- that remind them of their legacy. the LDS church for nearly a Bautista's death in 1961. riage is a tribute to the testimony Colonia Industrial, a small, decade. Eventually, the conven- Despite predictions that the and fervor of their founder, unimposing, exclusive colony of cionistas reconciled with Church group would flounder after Margarito Bautista Valencia. Mexican Mormons, lies in the leaders, and a majority of the Bautista's death, community municipio of Ozumba at the base members of the Third members continued to practice SOURCES CONSULTED LDS of Popocatepetl, an active vol- Convention returned to the with considerable autonomy the Balderas. David Dominguez. Inteniew cano in the central valley of fold. Two smaller groups, how- fullness of the gospel as outlined with author, 14 August 1996. Mexico. ever, remained independent. by Bautista. Today, the Kingdom Balderas. Juan Dominguez. Inteniews With over a century of Lorenzo Cuautli led a congrega- of God claims approximately with author. 15-17 August 1996. Mormon history in the area, tion of convencionistas in San nine hundred members, seven Dominguez, Juan Hernandez Obispo. Ozumba figured prominently in Gabriel Ometoztla Puebla, which hundred of which live under the Inteniew with author. 11 January 1997. the early decades of Mormon refused to reconcile with the LDS United Order in Colonia Gomez. Raymondo. Interview with au- proselyting in Mexico. In 1881, church. They took the name of Industrial. In the early years, thor. 14 January 1997. LDS apostle Moses Thatcher led La Iglesia de Jesucristo de 10s most members encountered prej- Herrara, Agricol Lozano. Historia del missionaries and converts to the Santos de la Plenitud de 10s udice outside their community Mormonismo en Mexico. Mexico, top of Popocatepetl and dedicated Tiempos (The Church of Jesus and employment and security D.E: Editorial Zarahemla. 1983. Mexico for the preaching of the Christ of the Saints of the within. In recent years, their suc- Tullis, F: LaMond. Mormons In Mexlco. gospel. These missionaries met Fullness of Times). Margarito cess in obtaining employment ; Logan: Utah State University Press, 1 1987. some success in Ozumba where Bautista encouraged conven- outside of the community has Van Wagoner, Richard 5. Mormon in that same year they founded cionistas to move to Ozumba, improved. Nonetheless, local Polygamy: A History. 2nd ed. Salt the second LDS branch in Mexico. where he established Colonia committee members continue to I Lake City: Signature Books. 1989.

SEPTEMBER 1997 UPDATE

sions, women are not. "Girls should not feel pressure to go," he told students at the LDS Institute of Religion at Weber State University in April. President Hinckley said women should get an education to better equip themselves for the future. "I know [schook] a grind. I know it's difficult," he said to the more than two thousand men and women in attendance. "Keep on and keep hammering away" Some BYU coeds felt the President's remarks were timely: "It's gotten to the point where, if you're not married by twenty-one, people expect you to go," one woman said. "It's a lot of pressure from the guys who say they want to many a returned missionary, from bishops, from religion teachers, from parents, from everybody. It's not fair." I LDS DANCERS DEMAND NUDE ART EXHIBIT BE REMOVED Movie Buffsjaces obscenity charges in Utah County. BYU BALLROOM dancers rented a Thousand Oaks, California, civic arts center last spring only to be scandalized by a painting display UTAH COUNTY VIDEO STORES FACE featuring some nudity. "They wanted the paintings taken down," one OBSCENITY CHARGES of the center's committee members told the Ventura County Star. "We IN OCTOBER 1996, sheriff's deputies seized eight hundred videos just can't do that. There's contracts and insurance involved and it deemed pornographic from Lehi and American Fork Movie Buffs raised the question of censorship." The dancers were in town for one stores. Residents had complained that many of the movies in the evening, and the center accommodated them by covering the of- closed-off adult section were marked "cable version" but actually fending paintings with tablecloths. The newspaper article points out contained sexually explicit scenes. Deputies also printed out a list of that fine-art students at BYU are required to use text books showing the last ten customers who had rented the movies. nudes in classical works. "1 suggest you look at an art history text In November, Movie Buffs sued Utah County in federal court, book," replied Bruce Christensen, dean of the College of Fine Arts saying its constitutional rights had been violated by the seizure of the and Communications and former PBS executive. "If you can find one tapes and customer list. The video chain also alleges it is losing that doesn't have any nudity in it, tell me so I can buy it. . . . But our $1,000 a day in rental fees. Movie Buffs' attorney Jerry Mooney told students do not use nude models." Christensen explained, "The the Associated Press that the tapes contain material a late-night cable models are fully clothed and they are not required to do art assign- subscriber can see and are legal. ments that feature nudity." Shortly thereafter, Movie Buffs owners were charged with twenty- four counts of distributing pornography, dealing in material harmful to a minor, and racketeering. The ACLU has interceded on the owners' FORMER EMPLOYEE SUES CHURCH behalf, who face three felony charges SUSAN HOLLINGSWORTH has filed a lawsuit against the LDS church, CHURCH RETURNS TITHING FROM claiming she was falsely promised job security when hired in 1995. BONNEVILLE PACIFIC EXECUTIVES Hollingsworth says she was offered a THE LDS CHURCH has agreed to return $1.1 million in tithing job as the administrative assistant to money it received from four executives in a failed Salt Lake business Church Young Women's President venture. The bankrupt Bonneville Pacific executives paid $1.58 mil- Janette Hales Beckham for $48,000 a lion in tithing from 1986 to 1991. While several ex-Bonneville year plus benefits. She claims she was Pacific insiders have been convicted of crimes related to illegal busi- told that if she wasn't a good match for ness practices, the settlement includes returned tithing from former Beckham, she would be transferred, re- executives who were not prosecuted or have not been convicted. taining her salary. However, after the "The Church of Jesus ~hrisiof Latter-day Saints does not knowingly relationship with Beckham deterio- EW Ples. Janette Brckhnm accept tithing paid on income obtained through illegal or improper rated, she was forced to quit in says herjormer employee means," a Church spokesperson said. The settlement will go to pay February 1996, the Associated Press called her "Big Mama." off creditors of the alternative energy company, which is being reor- reported. ganized under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The Church had no comment, but in an affidavit, Beckham said Hollingsworth was disorganized, had inadequate writing skills, WOMEN NOT OBLIGATED TO SERVE worked poorly with others, and referred to Beckham as "~i~~ama." Hollingsworth, on the other hand, claimed Beckham "harshly and MISSIONS, PRES. HINCKLEY SAYS unjustifiably" criticized her. Hollingsworth's attorney, Willard A. CHURCH PRESIDENT Gordon B. Hinckley recently reiterated the ~arle,told.the AP that a Church employee called ~ollin~sworth's Church's position that while men are obligated to serve full-time mis- bishop in March and told him to counsel her to drop the suit.

PAGE 70 SEPTEMBER 1997 CHURCH EDUCATES MEDIA WITH men approached them, demanding money. They turned over what they had, then Voorheis was stripped of his backpack and shot be- PIONEER CD-ROM hind the ear. Barry wasn't harmed. Voorheis lapsed into a coma and AS ONE Associated Press article points out, Mormons have never was flown to an extended care center in Utah County in Mormon been too shy to talk about their religion. In keeping with tradition, philanthropist John Huntsman's private jet. The missionary, orig- the Church recently produced a CD-ROM detailing the 1847 Mormon nally from Cleveland, Ohio, is listed in satisfactory condition but still exodus to the Salt Lake Valley Twenty thousand have been distrib- comatose. Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires, police have apprehended one uted free to media outlets-just in time for the sesquicentennial cel- suspect and have identified the other two shooters. ebration. Included on the 600-megabyte disc are video clips, audio text, photos, pioneer journal entries, and a map of the entire Mormon PRES. HINCKLEY HOPES WORKING Trail from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley, as well as information about the contemporary Church, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. MOTHERS "NEED" TO WORK "We wanted this to be a toolbox with all the information a jour- LDS CHURCH President Gordon B. Hinckley said in October 1996 nalist needs to tell the story," Val Edwards, manager of media produc- that "It is well-nigh impossible to be a full-time homemaker and a tion for the Church, told the AE The pricey disk also features full-time employee." He also acknowledged that many women are interviews with such Mormon luminaries as former Miss America driven into the job market by economic necessity "I hope that if you Sharlene Wells Hawkes, San Francisco '49ers quarterback Steve are employed full-time you are doing it to ensure that basic needs are Young, and CEO Jon M. Huntsman. Catherine Stokes, a black convert met and not simply to indulge a taste for an elaborate home, fancy in Chicago who has advised the Church on some inner-city issues, is cars and other luxuries." At the 1997 Women's Conference fireside, also inteniewed. he continued on that theme: "Most of you and your associates who After numerous requests, the Church has now released the CD for are married are now employed outside the home. That is a statistical sale to the public. fact. You feel you must do this if you are to provide a home, music lessons, and other costly and consuming things. . . . I wish it were MISSIONARY SHOT IN ARGENTINA otherwise," he said, according to the Ensign. "I wish every mother could be at home. 1 recognize that this is not possible." He reiterated ORIN A. VOORHEIS and his companion, Armondo J. Barry, were on his warning on materialism and said nothing will bring greater satis- their way to their apartment in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when three faction than raising moral children. "You will be a very important part

LDS, RLDS Churches Restore J.S. America reached the two-million mark in Bible. An eighteen-month effort to restore June. Members in those countries now the Joseph Smith "Inspired Version" of the Bible is complete. The crumbling, yellow- paged book was washed, cleaned, and de- acidified in a joint LDS-RLDS effort. Teacher Fired Illegally Over "Anti- Researchers say the 1867 RU>S edition LDS" Book. The Equal Employment shows that Smith's revelations have been Opportunity Commission has found that faithfully reproduced. a Provo School District principal in 1993 Aicldt.tllin J~raj-c:, tlic las~qllllc LLI~ illegally fired a teacher over a book he academies, is one hundred yeat-s old. Orr Loses Suit Against Church. A deemed anti-Mormon. Charles M. Larson, federal appeals court has rejected a former who is not LDS, had his hours reduced fol- football player's contention that the lowing the publication of a work on the Book of Abraham that the Church-owned BYU owes him care for injuries suffered there. principal considered anti-Mormon. The EEOC has ordered that the Vernon "Budd" Orr said trainers misdiagnosed an injury and en- district reach a fair settlement. couraged him to play while hurt during the team's 1989 championship run. The court ruled that a university does not owe special Crews Search for LDS Shipwreck. U.S. and Australian ar- care to a student athlete above and beyond that owed to students in chaeologists will help a French team in its search for the wreckage general. of an English ship that sank in 1855. Forty-one passengers, mostly Mormons, died when the ship struck a coral reef in the South LDS Academy Hits Century Mark. Academia Juarez, the last Pacific about five hundred nautical miles from Tahiti. Explorers say of the original LDS academies, celebrated its one hundreth birthday the wreck is important because it bears the characteristics of other in June. The academy, still in use as a high school, is in Colonia shipwrecks in isolated regions, like those described in nineteenth Juarez, Mexico, a town with a population of about five thousand. It century adventure novels. has an enrollment of 420, three-fourths of whom are LDS. All

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 7 1 SUNSTONE

PEO PLE

TRANSFERS top four. Tulsa and Oklahoma City tied for fifth, eating an average of eight thousand Jell-0 packages a day. Lee J. Glines, former regstrar and bookstore manager at Mormon playwright and director Neil LaBute's film In the BYU'S Salt Lake Center, has been named the new director of the Company of Men-a dark and clever satire about office-backstab- center. bing, which premiered as a play at BYU-won the Filmmaker's Steven D. Bennion, former Trophy at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Ricks College president, was recently The Handcart Pioneers, a documentary produced by named president of Southern Utah Ogden-based Living Scriptures, was voted the best religious pro- University in Cedar City Bennion's gram at WorldFest-Houston 1997. grandfather, Milton Bennion, was Jackson Benson, author of Wallace Stegnec His Life and suu's first president one hundred Work, has won the $5,000 1997 Evans Biography Award from Utah years ago. David A. Bednar, State University business management professor at Aaron Taylor, editorial cartoonist for BYU's Daily Universe, the University of Arkansas, has been was recently named the top college cartoonist in North America; he named as Bennion's successor at won the prestigious 1997John Locher Memorial Award. Ricks College. Church President Gordon B. Hinckley was honored in April Paul E. Gilbert. former teacher by Rotary International for substantial financial contributions to the Emma Lou Thayne at the J. Reuben lark School of Law, organization's humanitarian and educational programs. is the new president of the BYU DEATHS Alumni Association. This summer, Donny Osmond performed in the Hill Retired BYU professor of speech and theatre arts Max Cumorah Pageant. He recently left a national touring company of Chatterton Golightly died 10 April 1997. He was 72. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat so he can spend more Founder of the organizational behavior department at BYU and time with his family. former dean of the Mamott School of Management, William G. Dyer, died in April 1997. He was 72. MISCELLANEOUS - Thls spnng, noted author and poet Emma Lou Warner Thayne was given the 1997 Madelelne Award for D~stinguished The Church recently gave Hugh Semce to the Arts and Humanities Downs, veteran news anchor and Marilyn Bateman, spouse of BYU President Memll J host of ABCk 20/20, an extensively re- Bateman, recently rece~vedthe 1997 Dlstlnguished Alumnus Award searched volume of his family history. from the LD~Business College During a work-related visit to Utah a BYU was recently named twenty-third out of Sports nlwtrated's year ago, Downs had expressed to a top fifty jock schools, largely because of ~tsfootball program and Church public affairs employee an infamous alums, such as Danny Alnge and Steve Young terest in family history. The Cougarettes, BYU's precision jazz dance team, recently Rodello H. Hunter recently filed won the overall grand championship at the NCAA Natlonal a lawsuit against the LDS church, Aaron Taylor Collegiate Dance Competition. They were evaluated in five areas claiming it had reprinted portions of choreography, funk style, pompom, her 1972 book, A Howe of Many Rooms, without giving her credit. A jazz, and overall showmanship Church spokesperson said Hunter's claim has no merit. BYU has been named to the Former BYU football star and current San Francisco 49er Steve 1997-98 Honor Roll for Character- Young recently announced that he and his fiancee, Aimee Build~ng Colleges by the John Baglietto, have postponed their Salt Lake City Temple wedding in- Templeton Foundation This is the definitely so that they can better get to know each other. nlnth year in a row that BYU has been so Divorced five times from four women, Larry King, 63, is get- recognized ting married again-this time to Shawn Southwick, 37, "a Utah Terry Tempest Williams, author Mormon and aspiring country singer," according to Newsweek. of Refuge and Pleces of Wh~teShell, was Southwick is also the former infomercial model for a hair extension recently given a grant from the John company. Simon Guggenhelm Memonal LDS church Apostle Neal A. Maxwell says his battle with Foundation The specific amount Terry Tempest LViIl~ams leukemia is going well. He said the love and prayers of his family granted is confidential, but it's known and Church members have blessed him during the intensive that the foundation disbursed nearly $5 m~lhonto 164 nominees chemotherapy treatments and early hospitalization. Salt Lake City was recently ranked first, agaln, for Jell-0 con- sumptlon Des Momes, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh round out the

PAGE 72 SEPTEMBER 1997 of what happens to them," President Hinck- LeBaron Found Guilty. ley said. "None can ade- Aaron LeBaron, the leader of quately substitute for a Mexico-based Mormon you as mothers." fundamentalist group, was sentenced in June to forty- BYU GRAD five years in prison, the max- imum sentence. LeBaron DESIGNS ordered the 1988 killings of GARMENT- three defectors and a child FRIENDLY witness. Bob Bent~ctt CLOTHES Marriott Coming to Las TIRED OF finding fash- Senator Bennett Fined. Vegas. For the first time, ionable shorts that come LDS Senator Bob Bennett (R- Marriot International Inc. only mid-thigh and Utah) agreed to pay $55,000 will be on the Las Vegas shirts that expose the in civil fines to settle an in- strip. The Mamott hotel will midriff, one BYU student quiry into campaign- not have gambling, but its decided to take the situa- spending violations. The partner, the MGM, will op- tion into her own hands. Federal Elections Com- erate a new thirty-thousand- The result, ZWear: A mission alleged that Bennett square-foot casino adjacent Peculiar Clothing Com- accepted 8 13,450 in illegal to it. The arrangement will ZWear: peculiar clothes for people Pans was organized contributions and failed to allow Mamott to keep its with peculiar underwear early this year. The Z report thirty-seven legal "family values" image, but stands for Zion, and "try contributions during his fill a "big void in the before you buy" ZParties are booked in Church members' homes. 1992 campaign. Bennett Maniott system," the Wall Designer Deneen Brack is working on next spring's line: bright says the violations were un- Street Iournal reported. The colors, florals, and denim-all designed to appropriately cover those intentional accounting and property should be com- garments. She's also considering a maternity line, ProvoS Daily Herald legal errors. pleted by fall 1999. reported. Dean Lyons, one of the company's founders, said he knows there are women outside the LDS faith who are also looking for the LDS Woman First at Utah County Sees Rash conservative, yet stylish, clothing that ZWear offers. "We'll focus on Haward Law. For the first of Church Break-ins. the valley first," he said. "Then we'll set up reps in those places where time in the fifty years the More than a dozen Utah it is heavily LDS-populated.We'll create the demand as more and Harvard Law School has County LDS church build- more people are wearing them." been in operation, a woman ings were broken into and is first in her graduating vandalized during the FOCUS GROUP IDENTIFIES RACIAL class. Lisa Grow, a Sandy, spring. Police, unsure of the Utah, resident who did her motive, have not ruled out TENSIONS AT Y undergraduate work in hate crimes. Ward offices WHILE BYU has certainly come a long way since the '60s when it sent chemistry at the University have been hardest hit, black applicants letters stating that there were "no families of your of Utah, recently accepted a though some other areas race" in the surrounding community and discouraged attendance. clerkship with U.S Supreme were also vandalized. racial tension continues to be an incendiary campus issue. A recent Court Justice Anthony focus group conducted by Multicultural Student Services found that Kennedy. many minority students feel a division between themselves and white students; they feel there isn't a place for them to make a contribution Historic Assembly Hall on campus. According to BYUSDaily Universe, last year five of the uni- Gets Face Lift. Worn versity's 120 black students left over these issues. stonework and crumbling One focus group member, a black male, said "People at BYU are stucco are being replaced on so judgmental. When they see me they think that I am stupid or the Assembly Hall on trouble and that 1 don't belong. I am followed by security in the Temple Square. The multi- bookstore." Liana Brown, an academic advisor, told the Universe spired, gothic building is ex- that many students tell her professors are not culturally aware. pected to be finished and Asscmbly Hall Jctst, I~ft Tyrone Brown told the Universe he wishes people would stop staring back in use this summer. at him and asking, "What sport do you play?" "Some people are Architectural preservation- Pres. Hinckley Dedi- really surprised that I served a mission," he said. "I want to tell them ists are disturbed that the cates Landmark Temple that there are black people in the Church." All of the focus group wood fixtures are being re- Church President Gordon B. members said the key to making them feel welcome is to treat them placed with white, paint-free Hinckley dedicated the St. like you would any other student. "Don't assume that because fiberglass ones. Louis temple in June, the you've watched Cops that you know what our culture is about," Church's fiftieth. Bindi Massela told the Universe.

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 73 SUNSTONE

& STUDIES SAY: MOST ADULTS HAPPY RELIGION CAN HELP MENTAL HEALTH; CHURCH KEEPS KIDS IN LINE

A SLEW of recently publicized studies have addressed issues including time the average family spends together, LDS teen drug use, and the role of religion in maintaining a healthy mental life. In one study, commissioned by the LDs church, researchers leamed that most adults are happy with their own family life and many are optimistic about the future. Seventy-nine percent said their families are very close, while those with children said they spend an average of four hours a day together. Two-thirds often eat at least one meal a day as a family. Nonetheless, three-quarters believe that Americak MORMOMISM LEAVES IT'S LASTING IMPRESSION ON DENNIS RODMAN moral direction is getting worse, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. BW researchers studied drug abuse among Mormon families and The Chicago Bulls Dennis Rodman was jined $50,000for calling found that children of parents who model the tenets of deep reli- Mormons "assholes" on national television. HE is one of the most-fined gious conviction in their daily lives seem to have little trouble staying players in National Basketball Association histoly. away from illegal- drugs- and alcohol-and avoiding- kids who use them. The survey, separated into various geographical regions, found BASKETBALL BAD BOY MOUTHS that the different areas mirrored one another except in smoking ciga- OFF AT MORMONS rettes. There, teens in Utah Valley had a much higher percentage of trial use than did those on the East and West Coasts. "We think WHILE THE outcome of this year's NBA finals between the Chicago maybe they see smoking as a 'safe' way to rebel in the middle of Bulls and the Utah Jazz was never much in doubt, there were plenty Zion," sociologist Brent L. Top, one of three sociologists who con- of side-shows to keep things interesting. The head case, err clown, ducted the study, told the Deseret News. Dennis Rodman, a power forward for the five-time world champion In another BW study, psychologst Allen Bergin leamed that while Bulls (including this year, four games to two), managed to get him- many therapists see religion as a liability to mental health, it can have self in trouble, once again. This time he bad-mouthed the Mormons good and bad effects. Specifically, religious devotion in young adults on national television. After playing poorly in game three, Rodman makes them resilient through challenges but can be detrimental told the media he was unable to get going because of all the "asshole when peer pressure is involved, the Associated Press reported. Mormons." He claimed fans were taunting him by swearing and making obscene gestures during the game. When given the chance CARD WARNS AGAINST "TAMING" to modify his first statement, he said run it: "The ~ormonpeople don't like me either, right? That's a given, right? So what the hell." JOSEPH SMITH The Anti-Defamation League, the NMCP, and the NBA all came to SCIENCE FICTION writer Orson Scott Card worries that Mormons Mormondom's defense. "~ennisRodman's comments were exactly are becoming too hagiographic in the way they portray Joseph Smith. the kind of offensive remarks that canno1 be tolerated or excused." yoseph Smith needs to be immaculate to many members of the said NBA Commissioner David Stem. Time put him in its loser of the Church and die that way." he said at week column ("Tattooed One fined for insulting Mormons; must BIU'S fifteenth annual symposium on have meant Morons, his sometime religion"); Hard Copy made it science fiction and fantasy, according their lead story ("Next: The Sinner and the Latter-day Saints!"); and to BW's Daily Universe. "In some David Letterman joked that, for forgiveness, Rodman was going to ways we are taming him but are get baptized. killing his human side. We must give While Rodman didn't join the Church, he did apologize, sort of. him a myth that will not kill him but "As far as religion, I have no business saying anything like that," he keep him alive." Benson Parkinson, said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "If 1 knew it was a religion- an author and adjunct instructor at type deal, I would have never said it." Rodman later told Jay Leno he Weber State University, said LDs thought Mormon was just another name for the fans in Utah. Besides ethnic fiction does not appeal to the perhaps (but not likely) having his pride injured; Rodman also felt it national market unless LDs authors in the wallet: the NBA fined him a record $50,000 and Carl's Jr. can "bring their world to it." Those pulled TV ads featuring him. audiences are also hindered by a For Neal Cox, president of the Church's Illinois Chicago Mission, need for prefaces and explanatory Orson Scott Card doesn't there was a tangible silver lining to all of this. "Itk been an exciting information in traditionally LDS want Joseph Smith's few days," he told Provo's Daily Herald. The mission office phones books, he said. Susan Evans humanness forgotten. have been jammed. "Almost solid, I've been on the line talking to McCloud, also an author, confessed, people." In addition to being questioned by the media. Cox was also "My own personal integrity will not allow me to be like some oppor- a guest on talk radio shows. "It's a wonderful opportunity to explain tunistic Mormon authors. Instead of their syrupy, tear-jerking stuff, I our beliefs," he said. write real stories enhanced by 'Mormonisms,' " she said. "They are able to stand on their own two feet in any market."

PAGE 74 SEPTEMBER 1997

--- - SUNSTONE

BYUPDATE

CAMPUS NOW MORE "KID FRIENDLY

IN ALL the years that BYU married students have juggled classes and kids, there have never been diaper-changing tables in the restrooms nor "cry rooms" for fussy babies. Now the university has both. Many men's and women's restrooms now have $250 changing tables, and the recently remodeled Howard W Hunter Law Library includes four cry rooms where parents can take their children and still listen to RIU has (I $289-mrllron cco~~onlriitnpclil clrl ~lil\'cJ~irl~l C~IL~~II class. Also, the new student health center will offer care for families, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. BYU'S FINANCIAL IMPACT ON COMMUNITY ENORMOUS ENROLLMENT CAP TO INCREASE BYU HAS a $289-million estimated economic impact on Provo and BYU OFFICIALS said in May that over the next four years, the uni- Orem, according to school president Memll J. Bateman. University versity would be admitting two thousand more students. economists anived at the figure by adding the $43.7 million the uni- Nonetheless, the school won't be any easier to get in to. Academic versity spent during the 1995-96 school year to the $65.5 million Vice President Alan Wilkins told Provo's Daily Herald that, at best, the spent by faculty and staff and the $67.6 million shelled out by stu- average GPA for incoming students will drop by 1/100th of a point, dents. That total, $177 million, was factored into a formula that indi- from 3.68 to 3.67. The school currently accepts about 80 percent of cates that for every dollar from campus, another sixty-three cents are those who apply. generated by the two cities, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The BM] President Merrill J. Bateman says increasing the cap to twenty- university employs approximately 7,500 people and attracted eight nine thousand will be accomplished by scheduling classes in the af- hundred thousand visitors last year. The most popular reasons for a ternoon and evening-when classrooms are under-utilized-not Provo visit were the "Imperial Tombs of China" exhibit at the with new buildings. The university will also hire one hundred new Museum of Fine Arts, BYU football games, and families bidding faculty members and reduce the size of some general education farewell to missionaries. Provo Mayor George Stewart told the Tribune classes such as history of civilization and American heritage. Provo that BYU is the city's second largest source of sales tax (Sam's Club is Mayor George Stewart told the Herald the announcement is good first) and "carries its weight in the community." news: "Hopefully, [the new students will] shop at our new mall."

Ballroom Dance Equipment Stolen. $5,400 this fall, football and basketball teams will worth of equipment was stolen from the BYU sport a Pmssian blue, stardust gold, and Ballroom Dance Company's bus while in traditional white. Tallinn, Estonia. A toolbox, a sound analyzer, and several suitcases were among the items Y Group, Others Save Mayan City. taken. BYU anthropologists have joined with a Guatemalan institute to save an ancient lnternet Teacher Evaluation Tested. Mayan city Piedras Negras, one of the Possibly moving away from the standard paper most important and largest cities from the evaluation, BYU officials are testing several pre-Columbian period, has escaped the Internet versions. Proponents argue-that this BYL~btynsum11: on 115 "glol~cllCut,ip~ts" iooting that has 'plagued other siies, said system would allow students to select courses with Religior~C-324, now online. Stephen Houston, Bm anthropologist and and professors that better suit their needs. project director. The five-year dig will use Detractors say students won't fill out evalua- Guatemalan natives to dig out the city's tions if not forced to do so in class. palaces, pyramids, ball courts, and steam baths-much of which is under fifty to one hundred feet of earth. BYU Salt Lake Offers Inner City Program. A one-year intensive program to certify students with a strong interest in teaching in Religion Class Offered on Web. BW recently introduced its inner cities is now available at BYU Salt Lake. School officials say par- first lnternet course: Religion C-324, a class on the Doctrine and ticipants will earn a K-6 teaching certificate as well as the "skills, Covenants. This course is all text, but if there is demand, future knowledge, and experience to successfully teach in an urban setting. classes would likely include video clips and graphics. For more information, contact http://coned.byu.edu/is/indstudyhtm. Y Plays with School Colors, Adds Gold. Alarming Cougar purists everywhere, BYU revealed earlier this year that it had Y Sees Largest Graduating Class Ever. Late BYU President changed the colors of many athletes uniforms. School officials Rex E. Lee, whose mantra was "get out in four [years],"would have maintain that the official colors are still royal blue and white-but been proud: the class of 1997 boasted 3,919 graduates.

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 75 women, then 30 percent of the school's scholarships must be given to women. The complaint alleges BYU has a $1,792 gap between men's and women's scholarship monies. "The only way BYU can close the gap . . . is to add more sports for women," Michaelis said. Vanderbilt, Duke, and Boston College were among the other schools also cited for noncompliance. TWO FOOTBALL STARS BENCHED OVER HONOR CODE VIOLATION TWO OF BMJ5 youngest, brightest football stars have started the season on the bench. Details are sketchy but it appears that cornerback Ornarr Morgan and running back Ronney Jenkins were suspended for their involvement in an alleged rape. The Utah County woman had initially filed a complaint, but investigators dismissed it. Other, unidenti- fied players were also allegedly involved in the incident, but they had since graduated or used their four-year football eligibility VOICE CLOTHESLINE PROJECT "What these young men did probably would be written off as 'boys will be boys' at almost any other Division I school and they'd be MOVED OFF CAMPUS back playing football in August," one anonymous source told Provo's AFTER A widely publicized run-in with President Memll J. Bateman Daily Herald. "But BYU feels it's important that the Honor Code be up- last year, the fourth annual Clothesline Project was not hosted by held and that athletes come to understand that it will be enforced for BYU. Sponsored by VOICE, a BYU-approved feminist club, last year's them just as it would be for any other student." There are no pending event drew the ire of President Bateman after complaints about the legal charges against the pair. Jenkins was suspended for the entire display. Some painted shirts were inscribed with such messages as: 1997 season; Morgan for three games. Several people told the Herald "Raped. Abused. Battered. Suicide can seem better than (living?) that the player's probationary periods may be reduced if they meet through a temple marriage!," prompting President Bateman to de- certain university stipulations. mand they be removed-all on the same day he was to kick off the biggest fund-raising campaign in school history. BYU STUDENTS EARN HIGH RANK "The frustration and concern over last year's event were not sufficiently resolved to make it possible to have" the project on campus, FOR LOW LOAN DEFAULT said Larry Young, sociologst and faculty advisor to VOICE. He told BYU STUDENTS rank in the to^ five the Salt Lake Tribune that "telling your story" is an important pan of when it comes to paying back stu- the healing process for abuse victims and that the group will continue dent loans. Their default rate from to address the administration's concerns. University spokesperson 1990 to 1994 was 2.1 percent, com- Came Jenkins indicated that the Clothesline, which was moved to St. pared with the national average of Mary's Episcopal Church in Provo, caused the school to focus on 10.7 percent. "The numbers are a other projects. "We're not running away from these very serious is- very clear indication of the fine sues and we're concerned about the problem," she told the Tribune. quality of students who go to BYU," But there are other ways to "approach the problem of physical and said Ford Stevenson, associate dean sexual abuse," Jenkins said. One project was a day-long conference of admissions. Only Notre Dame and the university recently sponsored called "The Healing and Prevention Stanford ranked higher than BYU of Physical and Sexual Abuse." (1.6 and 2.0, respectively). To keep default rates down, BYU has insti- BYU, OTHERS ACCUSED OF tuted a debt limit and a series of education and counselling sessions with I'or d Stcventotl tlir n unil~t.is GENDER DISCRIMINATION students who take out loans. well represent BW's hgh- IN JUNE, a legal group filed complaints against Bw and twenty-four Stevenson said it's usually the quality students. other schools for discriminating against female athletes. The National smaller, two-year and proprietor Women's Law Center, based in Washington, D.C., accused the uni- schools that have a high number of student loan defaults. versities and colleges of violating Title IX, a law passed in 1972 to ensure equal treatment in college athletic programs between men's and FUNDRAISING AHEAD OF SCHEDULE women's sports. Any school that receives federal money is covered by the law. BYLJs FIVE-YEAR capital campaign-the school's most ambitious BYU administrators acknowledge they are out of compliance; fundraising effort ever-is nearly over. Four years early. As of March, nonetheless, the complaint caught the university off guard. "We were the university had raised $215 million of the $250 million goal. given a 'laundry list' of items that needed attention several years ago "President Hinckley said do it quickly so we're following counsel," which included such things as equal locker and storage space, ameni- Brent Harker, BW spokesperson, told the Deseret News. Students ties and other concerns," Elaine Michaelis, BYLJ women's athletic di- raised just over $50,000; faculty and staff contributed half a million. rector, told Provo's Daify Herald. Also at issue are scholarship dollars. Of the $215 million, $78 million is still in outstanding pledges. By law, if, for example, 30 percent of a schook varsity athletes are

PAGE 76 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSPOTS OXYMORMONS

WHICH HEAVEN'S GATE? THE EDITORS of the New Era may have regretted a recent, prescient Mormonad. Mormonads are those clever photos with catchy and in- spirational bits of advice to teens. The March 1997 Mormonad is shown above. Under the title "Heaven's Gate," the text reads: "In the Lord's House you leave the world behind and start on the path to eternal glory" Just two months later, a different Heaven's Gate religous group left the world behind by catchingthe comet Hale-Bopp's celestial tail. HEAVEN TO THANK. . . AND HELL TO PAY THE SALT lAKE TRIBUNE'S Paul Rolly and JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells recently reported the following anecdote: "Visitors at the Salt Lake LDs Temple grounds one spring day in 1964 never knew how close they came to having a spiritual experience. "Until now "The book Skunk Works, by the late Ben hch, head of Lockheed's secret Cold War-era aerospace operation for the U.S. military, contains this revelation from Norman Nelson, a CIA engineer for the Nevada-based program: "'A [experimentalspy plane] pilot got in engine trouble over Utah and flamed out. The Blackbird had as much gliding capacity as a manhole cover, and it came barreling in over Salt Lake, just as our pilot got a restart and hit those afterburners right above the Mormon Tabernacle. There was hell to pay."'

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 77 SUNSTONE

THE MORMON UNIVERSE

NEW MORMON WEB SITES twenty-four hours a day to assist members to make missionary referrals. Callers must have the name and phone number of the penon to Conference Transcripts Available to Web Surfers. The be visited plus the name, phone number, and home ward of the Deseret News now provides transcripts of general conference talks in member making the referral. The service boasts same-day prompt- its World Wide Web edition. www.desnews.com. ness in telephoning referrals: 1-888LDS-7700 (1-888/537-7700).

Web Site Provides Latest BYU News. Navsline, an online Latter-day World To Be Set in Motion. A new magazine fea- "newspaper," is being maintained by the Daily Universe and KBYU, turing Mormon people and issues is to begin publication in late- with access to BW Public Communications and Sports Information 1997. The magazine, Latter-day World, is a project of Utah Valley's press releases, videoclips from KBW's television news show, "web- and Geneva Steelk Joe Cannon and will be marketed to an audience cams" showing live or nearly live shots of campus, and complete on- like that of the long-running This People magazine. line editions of the Daily Universe. www.newsline.byu.edu. MHA Call for Papers. The Mormon History Association has an- Follow Trail of Hope to Web Page. Trail of Hope: The Story of the nounced 21-24 May 1998 as the time and Washington, D.C., as the Mormon Trail, a PBS documentary that aired nationally in August. place for its upcoming annual conference. Paper proposals and vitas now hosts a home page on the intemet. The page has pioneer stories, should be submitted to program chairs Greg and JaLynn Prince at video clips, high-resolution images, and biographies of the documen- 14800 Pettit Way, Potomac, MD 20854; 301/330-9402. tary's producers. www.trailofhope.com. Is the LDS Church a New World Religion? This question will LDS Youth Go Online. BW student Michael D. Jensen has be the focus of the International Mormon Studies Conference in launched two web pages devoted to the youth of the Church and Durham. England, on 19-23 April 1999. Submit paper proposals by their leaders. www.ldsyouth.com hosts uplifting thoughts, poetry. 1 March 1998 to Douglas J. Davies, the College of St. Hild and St. and messages for youth; www.ldsvouth.corn/leaders has supportive Bede, (LDS Conference), University of Durham, Durham DH1 lSZ, ideas for leaden. Jensen credits his creation with at least one baptism. England.

LDS Sci Fi Goes High Tech. A new intemet literature list dedi- Social Scientists Set Sail for San Diego. The Mormon Social cated to Mormonism and speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, Science Association will convene in San Diego, California, 7-9 and horror) can now be subscribed to at www.coollist.com. Enter ldsf November 1997, in conjunction with annual SSSR and RRA meet- in the subscriber box. ings of national sociologists of religion. Contact MSSA president Lany Young at department of sociology, Brigham Young University, LDS Divergers Converge on the Net. A new website welcomes Provo, UT 84602; 801/378-2107; e-mail: [email protected]. short essays and sermons on various theological topics from the many divergent paths throughout the Latter Day Saint movement. Professors To Discuss Religion and Academic Freedom. wwwangelfire .com/ky/inauiry. The American Association of University Professors will sponsor a conference with the theme "Academic Freedom at Religiously LDS ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFERENCES Affiliated Institutions," 24-26 October 1997 in Chicago. Scott Abbott, chair of the BW AAUP chapter, will address the conference. "Dial-A-Missionary" Now Taking Calls. MTC missionaries-re- Further information is available through the AAUP at 202137-5900. ported by the Church News to be "very kindn-are standing by Women To Discuss Experiences. The Mormon Women's Forum will host the Counterpoint Conference on 15 Isaac Galland: Both Sides of the River. November 1997 at Utah Valley State ?he MomSettlement at Nashville, Lee, Iowa: College. For information, contact Mormon Dedicated to ChmhHistoy One of the Satellite Settlements of Nmvoo. Women's Forum, PO. Box 58281, Salt Lake City, UT 84158; 801/297-2720. aadBio8raphy 1830-1857 433 East 300 South, Hyrum, AML Featuring Terry Tempest Williams. The Association for Mormon Letters has announced that the acclaimed author of Refilge will speak at a fundraising event at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City on Thursday 20 &Volume Index available S November 1997. Contact AML, 175 North Main, Pleasant Grove, Utah 84062.

PAGE 78 SEPTEMBER 1997 SUNSTONE

AN OLIVE LEAF

". . . pluckedfrom the Tree of Paradise, the Lord's message ofpeace to us." (See History of the Church 1:316 and D&c 88.) "TELLME 'BOUT THE HEAVENLYMOTHER"

There are few Mormon elaborations God to love him. How solitary and on the LD~belief of a Mother in 4:- gloomy for him to sit for ever Heaven. In 1872, the Church's peri- alone in heaven. odical in England, the Latter-day d '*% This overwhelming thought of Saints' Millennia1 Star, approvingly 1 the solitude of God oppressed her reprinted this item from the contem- d little heart. It would not leave her. porary non-Mormon Golden Age. Overcome with sadness she cast Thirty-eight years late< in 1910, the herself on the moist grass and Millennia1 Star again reprinted the sobbed herself asleep, while in her piece accompanied with quotes from dream a bright and winged angel A B. H. Roberts extolling the inspiration P came and whispered something in of Eliza R Snow's poem "0 My her ear, and she awoke and arose, Fathel;" which explicates the exis- and with flute-like voice cried ex- tence of a feminine deity. Mormon ultingly aloud, artists seldom depict Father in "0 Heavenly Mother, I have Heaven and, with few exceptions, found you! Strange, I did not never depict Mother; the accompa- know, that no one told me! Why, nying Mother-in-Heaven painting by there must be a Heavenly Mother turn-of-the-century Mormon artist if there is a Heavenly Father." John Hafen is from a group of paint- Can any one conceive of a ings he did in 1910 to illustrate Divine Father without including a Snow's poem. Divine Mother in the conception? No more than we think of child SMALL CHILD WITH without involving the idea of questioning eyes of blue, N mother and father. People prate A holding a thought in glibly of a "Parent" in heaven-yet leash, leaned confidently on the look with compassion on the child bosom of her mother, and with a voice full of repressed feeling who has only a parent on earth. The love of God is often illus- asked, trated by showing what an earthly father will do for a child. "Why don't you tell me 'bout the Heavenly Mother? Don't But does a mother do less? she give us any thing?" Not only from the mouths of babes and sucklings has the A thrill of strange rapture shot through the heart of the cry gone forth for a mother in heaven. Men, strong and brave, mother as she pressed her child to her heart and inaudibly have yearned to adore her. Theodore Parker was wont to pray, prayed that she might be able to gve her child a true and "Father and Mother God." The heart of man craves this faith, worthy thought. Then from her book of memory, she read in and has from time immemorial demanded the deification of subdued tones, as follows: woman. The Catholic Church, with a wonderful adaptability I knew a little girl once, almost like you, who thought about gave her children the Mother of Jesus for an object of worship. her Heavenly Father, how good and great he was, but ever and When we draw nearer the Divine Man, lo! we shall find a ever alone through eternity, with no one to understand him Divine Woman smiling upon us. Much that is plaintive in and none to love. How understandingly men, women and music, sad in poetry, and pathetic in art, is the expression of little children on earth and the angels in heaven loved each the soul's instinctive sigh for a Divine Mother. In the Father's other; birds and beasts had their kind. But God had no other many mansions we shall find her and be satisfied. FS

SEPTEMBER 1997 PAGE 79 7 SUNSTONE SYMPOSIU 6-9 AUGUST, UNIVERSITY PARK HOTEL CASSETTE RECORDINGS Prices: 1-2 tapes = $8.00 ea.; 3-5 tapes = $7.50 ea.; 6 or more tapes = $7.00 ea. Purchase seven tapes for $49, and get an eighth plus an 8-cassette binder FREE! - Use order form at lower right, or call 8011355-5926 to place credit card order.

INDIVIDUAL SPIRITUALITY AND INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION The numbers refer to the session numbers in the 1997 Sunstone Symposium Panel: Lawrence A. Young, Marybeth Raynes, program. Contact the Sunstone office (801/355-5926) to receive a free copy of the Reba Keele program, which has detailed abstracts of each session. ROBERT FROST AND MY SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING AND LlFE Elbert Eugene Peck WHAT'S A MOTHER TO DO? A LITERARY TOUR OF THE LAND OF THEARCHETYPEOFETERNAL Ann Edwards Cannon SAINTS MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY: JOSEPH TOWARD THE LIMITS Martin Naparsteck SMITH'S LAST DOCTRINE ON GOD Marden Clark THE JOYS OF SUPRA-LITERALISM C. Jess Groesbeck GLEAMINGS FROM UTAH IN THE 1990s: Chrfs Conkling A DECADE OF EXCOMMUNICATIONS: A A DEMOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE A FAVORITE POEM OF MINE 1966-75 PROFILE Tim Heaton. Pam Perlich Rachel Day. Karl C. Sandberg, Karen Lavina Fielding Anderson MORMON CREEDS Mar uente Moloney, Lauran Hamblin, Dennis SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD IGO?: Panel: Ann Wflde. Daniel Rector, Richard M. $lark YOUNG WOMEN QUESTIONING THE Cummfngs. Stacy Burton CAN A BELIEF IN REINCARNATION BE CHURCH IN WHOSE IMAGE?: RELIGION AND THE RECONCILED WlTH MORMON Panel: Linda Quinton-Jones, Ray Hill, Marti ETHICS OF HUMAN CLONING DOCTRINE? Jones Courtney S. Campbell; Margaret P. Battin, resp. VfrgmfaBourgeous STILL PECULIAR AFTER ALL THESE SARAH AND HER SISTERS ARE ALIVE GENETIC PROGRAMMING AND THE YEARS: MORMONS THROUGH THE AND WELL IN NON-MORMON PUTTING OFF OF THE NATURAL MAN EYES OF NON-MORMON NOVELISTS BOOKSTORES John Tarjan; Paul Montclafr, resp. Sharyn larsen, Robert G. Larsen; John Sillito, Molly Bennfon JOSEPH SMITH ON THE FRONTIER: THE resp. TRUTH-TELLING AND SHlmNG BOOK OF MORMON AS AMERICAN MORMONISM IN BABYLON: THE WHORE THEOLOGIES: AN ANALYTICAL LOOK DREAM MACHINE AND THE BRIDE AT HOW WlDE THE DIVIDE: A MORMON Scott Chfsholm; Mark Thomas, resp. Lfsa Bickmore: Marissa Januzi, resp. AND AN EVANGELICAL IN IS GENDER ETERNAL, AND WHY FRANK J. CANNON: MORMON CONVERSATION SHOULD WE CARE? MUCKRAKER Panel: Dave Combe, Jeff Needle Name Hansen. Laga Van Beek, resp. Scott Kenney; Kenneth L. Cannon 11, resp. AMONG THE MORMONS: AN ACCOUNT SLIDE TOUR THROUGH THE NEW THE LOVE-TRUST MODEL-A BY A CONTEMPORARY OBSERVER TESTAMENT LIBRARY BEHAVIORAL INTERPRETATIONOF LDS W~llfamMuldur; Karfn Anderson England, Lew Wallace DOCTRINE FOR COUNSELORS AND interviewer RECONCILIATION TEACHERS DRESSING THE BODY Trevor Southey C Kay Allen; Charles Bright, resp. Panel: Marni Asplund-Campbell, CarolB. Quist, IRKSOME FACTS AND TROUBLESOME FREE PRESS: RUNNING A STUDENT Tessa Santiago. Jennifer England, Charlotte CONCLUSIONS: MORMON HIERARCHY: England, Allfson Pingree NEWSPAPER AT BYU EXTENSIONS OF POWER BY D. Panel: Cam; Hill, Fara Anderson, Mark Smith, THE MORMONS AND THE ENVlRONMENT MICHAEL QUlNN Dave Barber Panel: Glbbs Smith, Ronald Molen. Dennis Panel: Armand L. Mauss, Will Bagley, D. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST Smith Mfchael Oufnn Thom Duncan, writer; Dane Allred, Margie EVOLUTION VERSUS A BELIEF IN GOD A COLLISION OF CULTURES: THE AAUP Duncan, Thom Duncan Jane Flynn, Michael AND LlFE AFTER DEATH- AND THE BATEMAN ADMINISTRATION Hynn, Tim Hansen, readers RECONCILIATIONS Bryan Waterman FRENCH MISSION, 1954-1957: A Panel: V~rgin~aBourgeous. Nola Wallace, Karl C. Sandberg. C. Jess Groesbeck, W. Kenneth MORMONS AND NON-MORMONS LOOK CHAPTER FROM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY AT HOW WlDE THE DIVIDE: A MORMON Levi S. Peterson Hamblin FORTY YEARS IN DESERET: AND AN EVANGELICAL IN CONFESSIONS OF AN AGING, CONVERSATlON HYPOCRITICAL, EX-MISSIONARY REASSESSING THOMAS O'DEA's THE MORMONS Panel: Steve Mayfield, Van Hale. Martin Wayne Booth Tanner, Ken Mulholland, Jeff Sillima, Sandra FAMILIES ARE FOREVER: PARENTS OF Panel Armand L. Mauss, Laurie DiPadova Tanner Stocks, 0. Kendall White CHILDREN WHO HAVE FOLLOWED A NO LAUGHING MATTER: THE PoLrncs IS THE MORMON CHURCH CHRISTIAN? DIFFERENT PATH OF MORMON POLITICAL CARTOONS Panel: Robyn Knibbe Davis, Rob Steffensen, TOWARD HEALING THE WOUNDS OF Susan Christensen; Calvin Grondahl, resp. Rick Kunc, Jann McConkie CHRISTIANITY Janfce Allred: J. Frederic Voros. Jr., resp. THE PLIGHT OF THE MORMON RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT RATIONALIST DEPARTMENTS IN UTAH HOW MY PROFESSION AFFECTS MY Robert D. Anderson; Allen Roberts, resp. BELIEFS AND VICE VERSA Panel: Lame DiPadova Stocks, Grant THE OTHER TRUE CHURCH Protzman, Karen Suzuki-Okabe. David Jones, Panel: Leonard Arrfngton, Dfana Gardner, Jean White, Rod Decker, Palmer DePaulis Robert Kfrby, Richard Ferre. Christine Durham Jeff Needle; Robert Ford, resp. IN DEFENSE OF MORMON SCHMALTZ SCIENCE AND THE POWER OF PRAYER A MINISTRY OF BLESSING: IN Panel: John L. Needham, Tom Kimball, Dennfs W. Nfelson REMEMBRANCE OF NICHOLAS G. Elizabeth Smart, Tracey Smfth, Janette Watts THE TRUTH, THE PARTIAL TRUTH, AND SMITH- ...... CHILDREN OF THE PURGE SOMETHING LIKE THE TRUTH, SO HELP Lav~naFfelding Anderson; FarreN Lines, resp. ON PORNOGRAPHY: ADDICTED TO Panel: Elizabeth Bradley, Angela Toscano, ..ME - GOD--- Christian Anderson, Nephi Allred Clay Chandler; D. Michael Q~ifln,resp. LOVE? MORMON AND JEWS: FIVE YEARS ENDOWMENTS AND SEALINGS AS Dennfs M. Clark LATER RITES OF ANTICIPATION FRIENDS AND FAMILY: THE Steve Epperson; Leslie G. Kelen, resp. Melvyn Hammarberg; Dave KnowRon, resp. IMPORTANCE OF SHARED THOSE SAME OLD STORIES: INSIGHTS THE BULLET TRAIN AND THE MAGIC EXPERIENCESIN THE SHARING OF OUR FROM MYTH AND RITUAL STUDIES FOR WOODBOX: MORMONISM, FROM MAGIC SPIRITUAL SELVES DEALING WlTH THE MUNDANE TO METAPHOR Janet Walker Tarjan; Lynne Whitesides, resp. Danrel Wotherspoon Davfd Bruce Gardner; Ardean Watts, resp. MORMON POLYGAMY AND THE UNDERSTANDING MORMONISM: FROM BEYOND IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: FlVE ECONOMICS OF SALVATION THE OUTSIDE IN MOVIES THAT HAVE AFFECTED MY Carrie A. Miles; Greg Pingree, resp. Peter Rock; Nella Seshachan, resp. SPIRITUALITY MORMONS VS. NON-MORMONS: PETER FROM MORALITY TO POLITICS Panel: Chris Hicks, Don Porter. Jen Parker ROCKS' NOVEL THIS IS THE PLACE Claude J. Burtenshaw; Jerrold S. Jensen, resp. A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE Panel: Peter Rock, Eric Jones, John L. OF LAWYERS, LEMONS, AND SAINTS: A WAY TO SUNSTONE, OR HOW IGOT Needham, Paul Swenson, Rachel Day SUMMARY OF CONTEMPORARY FIRED FROM BYU THE LION OF THE LORD AND HIS LllTEL LITIGATION INVOLVING THE LDS Gall Houston LAMBS: A LOOK AT THE BRIGHAM CHURCH AND ITS MEMBERS "THE CLOWN OF THE PROFESSIONS": YOUNG FAMILY, 1857-77 Edward A. Berkovlch; Kenneth L. Cannon 11, HUGH NIBLEY AND SCHOLARSHIP Jeffery 0. Johnson; Fritz Umbach, resp. resp. Boyd Peterson; Jeff Hardyman, resp. WHAT THE ATONEMENT MEANS TO ME JACOB AND THE ANGEL: MORMON THE LDS CHURCH AND THE POLITICS Panel: Julie Chr~stensenCummings, Derek READERS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE Llnes. Jana K. Riess Karl C. Sandberg Richley Crapo PARALLELS IN QUANTUM SCIENCE HELEN MAR WHITNEY'S DIFFICULT EVIL'S ORIGIN, EVIL'S END: AN AND MORMON BELIEF CONVERSION TO POLYGAMY 'ANALYSIS OF THE ENOCH NARRATIVE Panel: Bjarne Christensen, Phil Smith, Knute Todd Compton; Martha Pierce, resp. IN THE JOSEPH SMITH TRANSLATION Chrlstensen, David Allred "I KNOW BEYOND A SHADOW OF A OF GENESIS WRITING FROM WITHIN A RELIGION DOUBT": TESTIMONIES OF GAY MEN Kathleen Flake Robert A. Goldberg. Dean may Panel: Robert J. Christensen, Ben Jarvic, LAWS AND ORDERS AT WINTER DECONSTRUCTING THE MAILBOX: A Duane Altig, Steven Zakhanas QUARTERS LOOK AT CHURCH VIDEOS HOW MORMON HOMOSEXUALS Edward Kimball; Lee Warthen, resp. Panel: Sam Cannon, Matt Workman AlTEMPT TO COPE WITH BEING A BUILDING WILKINSON'S UNIVERSITY MYTH, LEGEND, AND REALITY: MEMBER OF THE LDS CULTURE Gary Bergera; Paul W. Hodson, resp. PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON THE Panel: Jim Stringham, Shawn Johnson, Duff THE LOGICAL NEXT STEP: MORMON EXPERIENCE Dazley, Janie Bennett, Frank Mensel SANCTIONING AND AFFIRMING SAME- Panel: John Sillito, Russell Burrows, Craig CIVIC VIRTUE AND THE AMERICAN SEX RELATIONSHIPS Oberg, Mike1 Vause REPUBLIC Gary Watts FlVE BOOKS THAT HAVE AFFECTED MY J. D. Williams; Dennis Farnsworth, Rod 0. Julander, resps. ON THE NATURE OF SPIRITUAL SPIRITUAL LlFE COMMUNITIES AND THEIR RELATION Panel: Dee Freeman, Jeny Johnston, Allen ANSWERS TO HISTORY QUESTIONS Roberts, J. Frederic Voros Jr.. Allison Pingree, D. Michael Quinn TO INDIVIDUAL SPIRITUAL NEEDS H. Wayne Schow; Julie Christensen Arthur Wiscombe MOMO: THE UNDERBELLY OF THE PILLARS OF MY FAITH Cummings, resp. SACRED A "LOYAL OPPOSITION" WITHIN THE Panel: J. Frederick 'Toby" Pingree. Karin Alex Caldiero Anderson England, Dale Lecheminant LDS POLITY: A REVIEW OF THE CASE FILMSTRIP NOIR: DEATH AND THE REPORTS OF THE MORMON ALLIANCE, A SYMPATHETIC READING OF NEPHl 1970s CHURCH EDUCATION FILM Kim McCall VOLS. 1 & 2 Panel: Bryan Waterman. Joanna Brooks, Stacy Scot Denhalter; Janice Allred, resp. THE WANING OF MORMON ETHNICITY: Burton THOUGHTS ON MORMON AND WHAT THE LADS CHURCH CAN LEARN HELPING THE RAPIDLY EXPANDING FROM LESS ACTIVE MEMBERS AMERICAN CULTURES NUMBER OF MEMBERS RESIDING Steve Epperson; Daryl White, resp. Panel: Stan Christensen, Loneta Murphy, Jim OUTSIDE OF NORTH AMERICA TO Ure, Diane Hamilton, William Mulder DO NOT LECTURE THE BRETHREN: THE SURVIVE AND PROSPER IN THE RESPONSE TO STEWARD L. UDALL'S TOO MUCH STUFF GONE DOWN, BABY: MODERN WORLD PERFORMANCE POETS AT PLAY 1967 LETTER TO DIALOGUE Panel: Don A. Stnngham, Bill Loughmiller, Panel: Paul Swenson, Alex Caldiero, Lin Ostler, F. Ross Peterson Trmothy Simmons, Grant C. Beutler, Ginger Stefene Russell, Laraine Wilkins Larsen. Cathenne Wilson. John Aldous WIVES OF THE CHURCH PATRIARCHS FOUR ROADS TO SUCCESSFUL LlFE AS A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE Irene Bates; Maureen Beecher, resp. A GAY MAN: THE CHALLENGE AND WHAT PART OF KNOW DON'T YOU WAY TO THE CELFSTIAL KINGDOM REWARDS OF SPIRITUALITY Dean Thompson UNDERSTAND? A MEDITATION ON THE Panel: N. Michael Chase, Richard Van ETHICS OF GAINING KNOWLEDGE AND SECRET NOT SACRED: A REVELATION Wagoner, Derek Casper, Todd Dayley, Sean THE UTILITY OF ANTI- WISH LIST Pearson, Richard Prlest INTELLECTUALISM Jen Haoen Harlow Soderborg Clark A GIGANTIC MORAL BLIND SPOT: CREATIVE COMMUNITY BUILDING: MORMON CULTURE AS A GUN LESBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL CULTURE MORMONS AT THE FRONTIERS Ronald Molen; Tom McAffee; resp. Bonnle Lynn Mitchell-Green

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